Our site saves small pieces of text information (cookies) on your device in order to deliver better content and for statistical purposes. You can disable the usage of cookies by changing the settings of your browser. By browsing our website without changing the browser settings you grant us permission to store that information on your device.
I acceptI refuse
The small room on the first floor where the group of 15th-century sculptures is exhibited is located in one of the oldest parts of the palace. This is evidenced by the medieval mullioned window overlooking the square. In fact, the room is in the corner of the tower house that originally belonged to the Pipini family and that has brick cladding on the outside.
Of the examples of Renaissance sculpture placed here, the most admirable, Madonna and Child among two angels and prophets, is by Donatello. Other reliefs in glazed ceramics, stucco, wood or painted terracotta provide evidence of the sometimes serial production of Florentine workshops for private patrons and their domestic devotion.
Renaissance sculpture in Prato is marked by the artistic presence of Donatello, called in 1428 together with Michelozzo to create the external pulpit of the Duomo, for the display of the Sacred Girdle. The artist's genius led him to sculpt the famous Dance of the Putti, spontaneous and joyful, which Vasari described as “a dance of children [...] so beautiful and so admirable”. A new and “whimsical” creation, the pulpit profoundly influenced not only important sculptors such as Maso di Bartolomeo, but also the two ingenious painters who worked a little later for the Cathedral: Paolo Uccello and Filippo Lippi.
The masterpieces mentioned were complemented in the city (particularly around the cathedral construction site) by significant works from the foremost sculptors of the Florentine Renaissance. This includes Mino da Fiesole and Antonio Rossellino, who collaborated on the cathedral's interior pulpit, as well as Benedetto da Maiano. Alongside his brothers, the latter owned properties in Prato and, through his thriving workshop, crafted exquisite tabernacles for private devotion (some of which are displayed here) aimed at affluent families in Florence and Prato. These refined creations became widely reproduced. Finally, Andrea della Robbia, who left in Prato enchanting evidence of the new technique of glazed terracotta (invented by his uncle Luca) that adorns the Duomo, Santa Maria delle Carceri, San Lodovico, and Sant'Antonino, whose lunette - adorned with a splendid festoon of fruit - embellishes this room.
