Room 7
Prato’s local community, as it happened in other civic buildings in Tuscany, confided in images to ask for divine protection through the intercession of Mary and saints, already from the 14th century.
This is demonstrated by the big mural painting Madonna with the Child between St. John and St. Lawrence, achieved by the Maestro di Mezzana around 1320 on the Council Chamber’s inner entrance wall, situated on the long side of the square. A few decades later, the Council Chamber was shortened and a stairwell was built in the space between the old and the new entrance, so the fresco was somehow forgotten and discovered in 1916, during restoration works. In 1956 the painting was detached and brought in that room, taking the place of the closet in which the antique Gonfalone (Standard) was preserved. This textile artefact is again visibile after an accurate restoration by the Enclosed Benedictine Sisters of the Monastery of St. Mary in Rosano.
The other paintings with sacred subjects in this room also show Prato’s community’s great devotion towards the Virgin Mary.
The Gonfalone (Standard) The Gonfalone (Standard)
The Gonfalone, adorned with Nerina Querci Brogi’s handmade embroideries to a design by Tebaldo Donnini, was inaugurated on 5 April 1931, on the occasion of the Ostensione della Sacra Cintola (the ceremonial display of the Virgin’s Holy Girdle from the external pulpit of the cathedral) on Easter day. According to the newspaper “Il Telegrafo”, Prato’s standard was the most beautiful of the Italian Municipalities.
Giovanni Poli made the vertical pole, covered by blue velvet with nails arranged in a spiral, while Diego Giorgetti completed it with elegant metal garnishments.
The Standard exposed in the Council Chamber is a faithful copy of the original, hand-crafted by the Benedictine Nuns of the Monastery od St. Mary in Rosano in 2010.
Image gallery
Last update: 17 december 2024, 10:53