The museum complex of the former Santa Chiara conservatory is divided into two floors. The lower one houses the Archaeological Museum and the Spezieria of the Spedale di Santa Fina. The second floor houses the “Raffaele De Grada” Modern and Contemporary Art Gallery.
Spezieria di Santa Fina
The collection of ceramic and glass containers from the ancient Spezieria of the Spedale di Santa Fina, founded in 1253, is one of the most beautiful and interesting settings in San Gimignano. In addition to exhibiting a hundred pottery and glass vases from the 1400’s, the exhibit reproduces the old structure of the pharmacy with the subdivision in the space dedicated to the sale, the “bottega”, and in the one dedicated to the preparation of medicines. , the kitchen”. In some cases the ancient drugs are also exposed, found inside the containers. Since 2008 the Museum has also hosted a precious collection of 16th and 17th century ceramics (Casteldelmonte, Faenza, Montelupo) donated to Città da Fiamma and Gianfrancesco Pacchiani.
archaeological Museum
The section dedicated to the Etruscans occupies four rooms. The finds, coming from necropolis and settlements located in the territory of San Gimignano, date back to the VII-I century BC. The section dedicated to the Middle Ages is divided into two rooms. Inside the first are explained the techniques of production of ceramics and glass, while the second presents “finished” ceramics and glassware constituting the kitchen and dining sets of the period between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
Modern and Contemporary Art Gallery
The exhibition holds numerous works of art, including the paintings by Raffaele De Grada, to whom the Gallery is dedicated and of which it preserves important works such as “Fuga in Egitto” and “Il ponte degli Scopeti”, by Niccolò Cannicci, Renato Guttuso, Sergio Vacchi, Vinicius Berti, Carmelo Zotti, Luciano Bartolini, Marco Gastini. An entire room is dedicated to Giannetto Fieschi’s “Il pericolo” cycle.
