Image: Museo Civico, Credits
A new exhibition at the Museo Archeologico del Chianti in Castellina in Chianti will bring three important Tuscan paintings back to their place of origin for the first time after years in storage and a five-month restoration campaign. 'Ritorno nel Chianti. Dipinti del XIV e XV secolo' opens on 31 July 2026 at 6 pm and runs until 10 January 2027.
The show is centred on three works from the 14th and 15th centuries that are being presented together as part of a research, conservation and restoration project. According to the museum information, the project combined study and preservation work with the aim of returning the paintings to public view and restoring them to the local community. The exhibition is described as a significant occasion for the valorisation of the area’s artistic heritage.
The three paintings are 'Madonna col Bambino e i santi Biagio, Caterina d'Alessandria, Agnese e Agostino' by Bicci di Lorenzo, which comes from the Pieve di Sant'Agnese in Castellina in Chianti; 'Madonna col Bambino e i santi Giorgio e Francesco' by Cosimo Rosselli, originally held in the church of San Giorgio in Piazza in Castellina; and 'Crocifissione coi Dolenti e San Francesco' by Niccolò di Pietro Gerini, from the Pieve di San Sigismondo in Gaiole in Chianti. Together, they trace a line through Tuscan painting across the Trecento and Quattrocento.
The restoration work lasted five months and was carried out by Monica Mancini. The paintings were accompanied by historical-artistic research conducted by Nicoletta Matteuzzi, Lucia Bencistà and Annarubina Cateni. The exhibition is curated by Matteuzzi and Marco Firmati, who is director of the Museo Archeologico del Chianti.
The museum venue is identified in the announcement as the Museo Archeologico del Chianti, also referred to in the newsletter as the MACH, in Castellina in Chianti. The exhibition’s opening on 31 July marks the public return of the works after their conservation treatment, with the display remaining on view through early January 2027.
The project brings together paintings linked to churches and pievi in Castellina and nearby Gaiole in Chianti, underlining the local geography from which the works come. The announcement frames the exhibition as a recovery of material that had spent years in storage before conservation and display, now reassembled in a single presentation at the museum in Castellina in Chianti.
