Museum of Religious Art, Religious art museum in San Pietro all'Orto complex, Massa Marittima, Italy
The Museum of Religious Art occupies the San Pietro all'Orto complex in central Massa Marittima within a restored medieval convent building. Five exhibition rooms spread across two floors display sacred paintings, sculptures, and religious objects collected from churches and monasteries across the region.
The San Pietro all'Orto complex was built in 1273 by Augustinian friars and passed to the municipality in 1866 after the laws suppressing religious orders. The museum was inaugurated on 19 March 2005, a project of the municipal administration with the Diocese of Massa Marittima-Piombino. Its works come mainly from the Cathedral of San Cerbone and other local churches, under an agreement with the Soprintendenza of Grosseto and Siena.
The museum shares the San Pietro all'Orto complex with the Angiolino Martini contemporary art centre, so sacred and modern art sit under one roof. The name refers to the Augustinian convent founded in 1273, not to a surviving church. The entrance is at corso Diaz 36, where a ticket desk and bookshop open onto the convent courtyard.
The museum sits in the old town and is easily reached on foot by following the central streets. The rooms are climate-controlled and well-lit, making it comfortable to view the religious artworks.
The first room holds ten grey alabaster relief panels of disputed date, perhaps altar screens, showing the twelve apostles and the Massacre of the Innocents; they were walled into the inner facade of the Duomo in 1880 and found only later. A dark greasy coating gives the stone its near-metallic tone.
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