Brancacci Chapel + Salvatore Romano Foundation

Discover the Brancacci Chapel, seen by some to be the precursor of the Sixtine Chapel, accompanied by a multimedia video guide. The video tablet guide is an innovative tool, which will help you experience the chapel's ancient and unparalleled frescoes by Masaccio, Masolino, and Filippino Lippi. Your ticket includes entrance to the Fondazione Salvatore Romano, which preserves the prestigious collection of sculptures, paintings, decorative artworks and antique furniture donated to the Florence City Council by collector and antiquarian Salvatore Romano.

Brancacci Chapel. The church and convent of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence were founded shortly after the middle of the 13th century by a group of Carmelite monks from Pisa. It was the first of the great structures built by the mendicant orders in Florence. The oldest parts of the convent are those surrounding the current cloister, which was rebuilt during the 17th century.

The Brancacci Chapel, one of the supreme masterpieces of Renaissance painting, is located in the church, and is known around the world for its frescoes of the Life of Saint Peter by Masaccio and Masolino. Created between 1425-1427, the frescoes were left incomplete and finished by Filippino Lippi between 1481 and 1482.

The Sala della Colonna in the convent houses a number of detached frescoes and sinopie (under-paintings) from the same convent and church. Particularly interesting are two frescoes from the beginning of Filippo Lippi’s career, as well as frescoes by Gherardo Starnina from the destroyed Chapel of San Girolamo, and two sinopie attributed to Masaccio and Masolino found in the Brancacci Chapel.

Salvatore Romano Foundation. The museum is situated in the former refectory of the convent erected by Augustinian hermit friars alongside the church of Santo Spirito. This large refectory, built in 14th century Gothic style, is the only room in the renowned monumental complex of Santo Spirito to have maintained its original structure. Its former function is recalled by the imposing 14th century fresco by Andrea Orcagna and assistants that decorates the whole eastern wall, with fragments of a Last Supper at the bottom and a superb Crucifixion with a singular descriptive style at the top. The fresco is not only one of the best works by Orcagna, but also one of the largest wall paintings from the 14th century to have been preserved.

Since 1946, the refectory of Santo Spirito has housed the prestigious collection of sculptures, paintings, decorative artworks and antique furniture donated to the Florence City Council by collector and antiquarian Salvatore Romano (Meta di Sorrento, 1875 – Florence, 1955). Not only did he take care of personally setting up this museum and acted as honorary director until his death (a role later taken on by his son Francesco), but it was also Romano’s last wish to rest in peace in the monumental sarcophagus located against the wall in front of the fresco.

Son of a sea captain, Salvatore Romano’s interest in art started when he moved to Genoa as a young man in order to follow in his father’s footsteps. Within a short time, this interest had grown so much that at the age of thirty he was already an affirmed antiquarian in Naples. In 1920 he moved to Florence where he consolidated his business, obtaining wide recognition from illustrious art scholars, collectors, and directors of foreign museums.

The nucleus of Salvatore Romano’s collection in the refectory is only part of the invaluable heritage he collected over thirty years, representing a direct expression of the refined artistic style of this connoisseur. It combines items from many different époques and origins, including works by both anonymous and famous artists, all linked by the fact that they are surviving fragments of monumental works that have either been destroyed or fragmented. Each of these fragments acquires a new ornamental meaning in the unusual layout of the collection which, as decreed by Salvatore Romano at the time of making the donation, has not undergone any great changes over the years. One of the donator’s intentions was that this collection should bridge the gap in the city’s museum heritage in relation to the period dating from ancient times up until the 14th century.

Among the most significant works are an Angel and a Caryatid (or Virtue) by Tino di Camaino, two fragments of reliefs attributed to Donatello and a Madonna and Child attributed to the circle of Jacopo della Quercia.