City Museum of Antique Art
Find out the Pistoia’s entire history of art from the 13th to the 20th century
Pistoia
The Civic Museum can be found inside the Town Hall, the Palazzo Giano, known also as the Palazzo degli Anziani.
The town hall is the 14thcentury Palazzo degli Anziani and home to the City Museum of Antique Art, the city’s first and largest museum. Pistoia’s entire history of art from the 13th to the 20th century is represented here, organized in chronological order with groupings of the Florentine and Pistoia schools.
Among the prominent works are the Altarpiece of St. Francis by Coppo di Marcovaldo (13th century), the Lamentation of Christ by Lippo di Benivieni (14th century), and the great 16th-century altarpieces by Lorenzo di Credi and Bernardino Detti.
The third and final floor of the building holds a fine selection of paintings of the Florentine 17th and 18th centuries and of 19th-century romantic paintings, inspired by the liberal ideologies of Niccolò Puccini, the philanthropist and
patron from Pistoia.
The tour ends on the mezzanine where the museum’s 20th-century section is located. Here, the Giovanni Michelucci Documentation Center (Pistoia 1891 – Florence 1990) can be found. The collection of over nine hundred drawings, sketches, and transparencies documents the entire graphic production of the well-known architect from Pistoia. It offers useful comparisons with models and photographic reproductions of his most important achievements. These include the Church of San Giovanni Battista or of the Autostrada, the Church of Longarone, the Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze, and the Monte dei Paschi headquarters in Colle Val d’Elsa.
