Museo Diocesano

The Museo Diocesano is a museum of sacred art in Ascoli Piceno, a town in the Marche region of central Italy. Housed in the Palazzo Vescovile on Piazza Arringo, it was founded in 1961 by Bishop Marcello Morgante with the purpose of gathering and preserving the artistic patrimony of the Diocese of Ascoli Piceno. The museum occupies one wing of the episcopal palace, which also contains the city's civic pinacoteca and the state archaeological museum. Its collection spans from the 13th and 14th centuries to the present day, with particular strengths in sculpture, painting, and metalwork from local and regional workshops, as well as notable Florentine works of the 16th century.

Bishop Marcello Morgante inaugurated the museum in 1961, establishing it as an institution dedicated to reuniting and conserving as much of the diocese's artistic heritage as possible. Many objects came directly from the city of Ascoli, while others were recovered from elsewhere in the diocesan territory. The museum underwent significant expansion between 2018 and 2019, following restoration work on the episcopal palace complex. This enlargement deepened both the exhibition itinerary and the number of objects on display, incorporating the Salone di Mosè in the Palazzo Roverella into the visitor route. After the earthquake of 2016, the building was consolidated and restored. The museum reopened to the public in July 2023.

The exhibition space comprises seven rooms displaying wooden and stone sculpture, paintings on canvas and wood, sacred silver, and liturgical furnishings. The collection reflects the notable growth of minor local schools during the 15th century, alongside significant Florentine art of the 16th century. The holdings range from medieval works through contemporary pieces, with particular density in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The museum's scope is explicitly diocesan, drawing works from parish churches, cathedrals, and religious institutions across the territory rather than concentrating solely on the city of Ascoli.

The entrance area contains a polychrome terracotta cross dated between 1430 and 1450. The gallery running through the museum holds numerous precious metal objects, including a processional cross from a local workshop, made before the 16th century, with clear influences from the Abruzzo-Sulmona region; a wooden box with ivory decoration depicting the parable of the wise and foolish virgins; a portrait of Girolamo Bernerio by Venceslao Correggioli; and two silver statues, one of Saint Emidio by Pietro Vannini and another of the Madonna of Loreto from the 17th century by the Florentine goldsmith Curzio Compagni.

Room 1 is devoted primarily to paintings by the Venetian Carlo Crivelli, active in the Ascoli region from 1468, and his most important student, Pietro Alamanno. Key works include Crivelli's Madonna di Poggio di Bretta, painted between 1470 and about 1472, and Alamanno's tavola cuspidata of 1485, transferred from Cerreto di Venarotta. An antependium of silk and gold thread from the late 15th century, originally belonging to Ascoli Cathedral, is also displayed here.

Room 2 features paintings by Cola dell'Amatrice, including the panel of Saint Victor from 1517, as well as a canvas of the Adoration of the Shepherds from the Cathedral, attributed to Giovanni Andrea De Magistris or an unidentified Romagnol artist and dated to the 1530s.

Rooms 3 and 4 contain Baroque paintings, including works by Carlo Allegretti, Ludovico Trasi, and Nicola Monti's 18th-century Miracle of Christ.

Room 5, known as the Sala dell'Eden, was formerly the residence of the Vicar General of Ascoli. Its name derives from travertine columns representing Adam and Eve. It houses the arm-reliquary of Saint Emygdius by Pietro Vannini, a 15th-century coffered ceiling decorated with rosettes, and several Baroque paintings.

Among the most celebrated individual works is the silver statue of Saint Emygdius by Pietro Vannini, created in 1482, the year Pope Sixtus IV granted libertas ecclesiastica to Ascoli. The statue stands 152 cm tall, made of embossed silver, and depicts the patron saint in pontifical garb giving a blessing. The crosier in his left hand was added in the 17th century, donated by Cardinal Bernerio as indicated by the coat of arms on the handle. The octagonal base bears a Latin inscription naming both Peter and Francis, though scholars attribute the work solely to Vannini. Luigi Serra praised its vivacious expression in face and gesture, and the meticulous rendering of drapery folds. The mitre bears six oval panels, four showing saints of Ascoli, while the cope's round clip, set within a starred perimeter, engraves the moment of Pope Marcellus I's consecration of the saint as bishop.

The arm-reliquary of Saint Emygdius, also attributed to Vannini by Emile Bertaux, stands 87 cm high in gold-plated silver, shaped as a blessing arm containing a relic of the saint. Commissioned in the 15th century by the priest Giovanni di Filippo, it rises from a hexagonal star base of superimposed disks. The hand wears an episcopal ring, and the glove bears the inscription "IESUS AUTEM TRANSIENS P.R." A golden clip with four rubies and four emeralds holds the trim, centered with a stylized cityscape of Ascoli featuring a bridge, towers, and a Roman she-wolf.

A 16th-century Florentine crosier, 180 cm in height and made of embossed silver, was donated to the Capitolo di Ascoli by the Dominican Cardinal Girolamo Bernerio. Its Renaissance design is usually attributed to Giorgio Vasari.

The museum is located in the right wing of the Palazzo Vescovile, the episcopal palace on Piazza Arringo in Ascoli Piceno. This same palace complex also accommodates the Pinacoteca Civica and the Museo Archeologico Statale, creating a significant concentration of cultural institutions in a single civic space. The Sala dell'Eden preserves architectural features from its former use as the Vicar General's residence, notably its 15th-century coffered ceiling with rosette decoration and the distinctive travertine columns carved as Adam and Eve that give the room its name. The 2018-2019 restoration and expansion of the museum complex included the integration of the Salone di Mosè in the adjacent Palazzo Roverella, extending the museum's physical footprint.