Museo Nazionale d’Arte Medievale e Moderna

National Museum of Medieval and Modern Art

Silent guardian of Arezzo’s history, culture, and art

The museum is housed in the historical Bruni Ciocchi palace, one of the most beautiful Renaissance palaces in Arezzo, built in the mid-15th century at the behest of Donato Bruni, son of the famous humanist Leonardo, Chancellor of the Florentine Republic. It has three floors around an elegant porticoed courtyard, presumably designed by architect Bernardo Rossellino. An elegant staircase leads to the first floor, where you can admire the roof garden and the ballroom.
The museum is divided into twenty rooms following a chronological path from the early Middle Ages to the 19th century and houses artworks from the Municipal Picture Gallery, from the collections of the Fraternita dei Laici, a city institution founded in 1262, from churches and city monasteries suppressed in the 19th century, and from the private collections of illustrious Arezzo families, such as the Fossombroni, Mario Salmi and Vincenzo Funghini.
Among the most significant works are medieval sculptures such as St Michael Archangel and statues depicting the Madonna and Child, once placed to protect the city gates. There are important paintings from the 13th century, including panels by Margarito d’Arezzo, Arezzo’s first significant artist, as well as collections of ivories, plaques, small bronzes, and gold jewellery documenting the ancient roots of Arezzo’s goldsmithing tradition, including the precious scapular of the Blessed Pope Gregory X.
There is also an extensive documentation of artworks from the 14th to the 19th century, such as frescoes by Spinello Aretino and Parri di Spinello, paintings by Pietro Lorenzetti, Luca Signorelli, Giorgio Vasari, Salvator Rosa, Carlo Dolci, Andrea Pozzo, Viviano Codazzi, Pietro Benvenuti, Raimondo Zaballi, Amos Cassioli and small Macchiaioli paintings by Giovanni Fattori, Telemaco Signorini, Luigi Gioli and Adriano Cecioni.
Finally, there is one of the richest and most important maiolica collections in Italy, ennobled by a large glazed terracotta altarpiece by Andrea della Robbia and a portrait bust of Vittorio Fossombroni by Lorenzo Bartolini.