The museum of the Collegiata di Sant'Andrea, officially the Pinacoteca museo della collegiata, is in Empoli in some rooms of the canons' house beside the collegiate church. Its collection includes works by Filippo Lippi, Masolino da Panicale, Lorenzo Monaco, Francesco Botticini, Antonio Rossellino, Jacopo Chimenti and many others. Its founder is considered to be Vincenzo Salvagnoli of Empoli, a member of the provisional government of Tuscany in 1859, who obtained the funds for the first display; the first home was the chapel of San Lorenzo, with 54 works, mostly from the collegiate church.
What to see
The collection is on two floors, in eight rooms plus the covered loggia of the cloister with the glazed terracottas. The first room was the little church of San Giovanni Battista, turned into a baptistery in 1464: in the centre is the font by Bernardo Rossellino, of 1447, and on the walls detached frescoes, including Masolino's Christ in pity, documented in Empoli in 1424. The sculpture room has a marble Madonna and Child by Giovanni Pisano, from around 1280, one by Mino da Fiesole and the painted wooden Saint Stephen by Francesco di Valdambrino.
On the first floor the fourteenth- and fifteenth-century panel paintings give a broad picture of Florentine painting of those centuries: among others, the Madonna of Humility by Lorenzo Monaco of 1404, the Madonna enthroned with angels and saints by Filippo Lippi and works by Niccolò di Pietro Gerini, Lorenzo di Bicci and Agnolo Gaddi. The seventh room is devoted to the Botticini, with the great tabernacle of Saint Sebastian.
Visiting
A visit to the church of Santo Stefano degli Agostiniani, where temporary exhibitions have also been held, is linked to the museum. The museum was rearranged and given new systems in 2023; opening times and tickets should be checked beforehand.
Our editors' tip
In the thirties of the twentieth century there were plans to move the museum, but the bombing of the Second World War badly damaged buildings and works: the museum reopened only in 1956.
