Room 9

In 1858, at Gaetano Guasti’s behest, the first Municipal Gallery was set up in this area, which was divided in two rooms hosting 35 paintings, some of them now preserved in Palazzo Pretorio Museum.

Between 1868 and 1870 a single room was built, illuminated from above by a skylight. The pavilion vault was decorated with mural paintings by Pietro Pezzati with Eustachio Turchini and Santo Varni: against the background with grotesque are four ovals showing the effigies of Filippino Lippi, Fra’ Bartolomeo, Domenico Giuntalodi and Lorenzo Bartolini, to celebrate the most considerable artistic personalities of the city, which is recalled by Prato’s coat of arms at the corners, from the most ancient (with the armed knight) to the latest with golden lilies on a turquoise and red field.

The valuable paintings here on display show how important Prato’s families’ private collecting was for the development of the municipal gallery. Most of the paintings in this room come from the Martini family collection, first donated to the Hospital and then gone to the Municipality. The richness of the subjects and the variety of the provenance reveal an uncommon openness towards genres and artistic movements that were typical in the Medici-dominated Tuscany.