As promised, we went to the Museo di San Pietro all'Orto the afternoon of that same day. It is located on the same street as the organ museum. We had met the ticket girl at the Candeliere that morning, so she was expecting us when we walked in.
The first room you walk into is The Black Reliefs Room, it contains the mysteries of the early years of Massa Marittima Cathedral. The artist of the grey alabaster reliefs is unknown. They were most likely part of the original furnishing of the Catedral di San Cerbone. They were discovered walled into an altar in a chapel and rescued from demolition in 1880.
The procession of the apostles
At some point in their history, someone thought to cover them with animal fat to protect them, which is what made the alabaster turn black.
Down the hallway was the Brera for Massa Marittima exhibition. It is a multi-venued exhibition of young artists from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts of Milan in conjunction with the City of Massa Marittima.
Resilient Transparency
by Cecilia Giovannelli
Inspired by a neglected organ covered by a sheet of plastic in the Museum of Organs, this work is a tribute to the forgotten beauty of these instruments.
Cara Nonna by Sophie Andreoletti
This is not a piece I would normally gravitate to, but the description of the piece won me over. It features 9 monochrome panels in different organic colors. Colors that are the result of mixtures that the artist's grandmother, who painted as a hobby, had written down on a sheet of paper, like recipes. In order to reproduce the landscapes of Provence. Each panel is the color of an element: the sea, the sky, the orange of the tiles in the southern houses, the light purple of young lavender.
The next room was The Room of the Prophets. Everything in this room was made in the 13th or 14th century expressly for the new Cathedral.
Statue of Saint Cerbonius
Patron Saint of Massa Marittima
This wooden statue would be brought out on special occasions such as the Saint's Day.
A griffin, half lion-half eagle
A man
These sculptures are the original statues from the colonnade of the cathedral which still stands today. Carved by Giovanni Pisano, they were removed in 1998 to protect them from bad weather and casts were put in their place.
I took a picture of the front facade of the Cathedral today so you could see where they were originally.
Front Facade of the Catedral di San Cerbonne
Close-up of the colonnade
From here we went on to
The Room of the Maesta by Ambrogio Lorenzetti.
The Maesta
This painting was lost for more than 300 years until, in 1867 the founder of the Massa Marittima Civic Museum noticed something glowing in the ashes of the convent of Saint Augustine. The painting had been divided into five parts and the panels used to separate the ashes from the coal.
As we walked down the hallway, we came across a glass wall which looked into the Museum of Organs. Coincidentally, Dr. Ronzoni happened to walk by and saw us. He motioned for us to come over and play. I took it as a sign and so we finished up our tour of the museum and walked on over. He invited me to play the piano forte as long as I liked.
It wasn't much better than the time before, but I spent the next 30 minutes trying my best. We left with promises to come back. We were even able to practice our Italian with a little bit of small talk.
That made for a pretty full day. We went home for a light dinner and a movie--Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. "Chiamalo Dottor Jones, Signora!"
A dopo!
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