Museo Nazionale d'Arte Medievale e Moderna

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, for which the architect Bernardo Rossellino has been cited. A wide staircase leads to the first floor, where you can admire the collections, the large halls and, outside, the roof garden.
The museum is divided into twenty rooms following a chronological itinerary from the early Middle Ages to the 19th century and contains works of art from the municipal picture gallery, the collections of the Fraternita dei Laici – a city institution founded in 1262 -, churches and city monasteries suppressed in the 19th century, and the private collections of illustrious Arezzo families and personalities, such as the Fossombroni, Vincenzo Funghini and Mario Salmi.

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 gold background 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 goldsmith tradition, and the precious scapular of Pope Blessed Gregory X.
There is also ample documentation of paintings from the 14th to the 19th century, such as frescoes by Spinello Aretino and Parri di Spinello, panels and canvases 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, one of the richest and most important collections of Renaissance majolica in Italy is on display, complemented by a large glazed terracotta altarpiece by Andrea della Robbia.
Sculptures also include a portrait bust of Vittorio Fossombroni by Lorenzo Bartolini.