Museum · 20th century · Florence, Tuscany

Marino Marini Museum — Former Church of San Pancrazio

The Museo Marino Marini in Florence occupies the deconsecrated Romanesque church of San Pancrazio in the Oltrarno district, housing the second-largest public collection of works by the sculptor and painter Marino Marini (1901–1980). Founded in 1988 with a core donation from the Marino Marini Foundation, the museum presents paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints spanning Marini’s entire career, within a medieval building whose nave has been carefully adapted to provide the scale required for his monumental bronze horses and riders.

At a glance

Type: Monographic sculpture museum (deconsecrated church)
Period: Church founded 9th century; adapted as museum 1988
Style: Romanesque church; 20th-century sculptural collection
Location: Piazza San Pancrazio, 50123 Florence, Tuscany
Coordinates: 43.7737° N, 11.2481° E

Overview

Marino Marini was one of the most significant Italian sculptors of the 20th century, internationally recognised above all for his series of equestrian figures — horses and riders rendered with increasing abstraction from the 1930s to the 1970s — which became emblematic of post-war European art. The Florence museum, inaugurated in 1988, was created through an agreement between the Marino Marini Foundation and the City of Florence, which provided the former church of San Pancrazio as a permanent venue. The collection of over two hundred works presents a comprehensive survey of Marini’s output across media: bronze, terracotta, tempera, oil, and lithograph.

History

The church of San Pancrazio is documented from the 9th century and occupies a site in what was the western quarter of medieval Florence. It was enlarged in Romanesque style in the 11th–12th centuries and contains in its rear sacristy chapel the Renaissance Rucellai Sepulchre (c.1467), a tabernacle in marble by Leon Battista Alberti modelled on the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem — one of the most refined works of Quattrocento architecture. The church was deconsecrated in the Napoleonic period and served subsequently as a warehouse and tobacco store before its conversion to a museum in the 1980s. The Alberti tabernacle remains in situ and can be visited as part of the museum.

What you see

The nave of the former church provides a generous hall in which monumental bronzes — horse and rider compositions up to two metres tall — are displayed in the round, benefiting from the natural light admitted through restored clerestory windows. Adjoining rooms present smaller works in terracotta and painted plaster, drawings, and a section devoted to Marini’s graphic production. The Rucellai Chapel at the east end of the building houses the Alberti tabernacle, presented with contextual information that explains its connection to the Florentine humanist tradition. Temporary exhibitions of contemporary artists are staged periodically in the side aisles.

Cultural significance

The Museo Marino Marini is unusual among monographic Italian museums in bringing together two distinct layers of heritage in a single space: Marini’s place in the European sculptural canon of the 20th century and a medieval Florentine church with an outstanding Renaissance interior feature. The Rucellai Sepulchre by Alberti, often overlooked in favour of the more famous Rucellai Chapel at Santa Maria Novella, is an exceptional reason to visit even for visitors with limited interest in modern art.

Practical information

The museum is located in Piazza San Pancrazio, near the Arno between the Ponte alla Carraia and the Ponte Santa Trinita. It is typically open Tuesday through Saturday; check the museum’s official website for current hours and admission fees, as these have varied following changes in management. The museum shop offers a catalogue and prints.

Getting there

From Florence Santa Maria Novella station, the museum is a 15-minute walk south through the historic centre. Buses serving Piazza Goldoni (lines C1, C2, C3) stop approximately 300 metres from the entrance. No car access is recommended in the historic centre ZTL zone; use the park-and-ride facilities at the city periphery. The nearest taxi rank is at Piazza Santa Trinita.

Sources & resources

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The Marino Marini Museum in Florence is located in Piazza San Pancrazio, in the former church of San Pancrazio.

Marino Marini (1901-1980) was one of the most important Italian artists of the twentieth century, especially as a sculptor. He was born in Pistoia, but studied art in Florence, before moving to Monza as a teacher and finally arriving at the prestigious Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan. Here is the second largest collection of his works, after the collection dedicated to him in his hometown.



The Marino Marini Museum was born from the dual desire of the Florentine administration to restore the ancient church of San Pancrazio, assigning it to cultural activities, and to find an adequate home for the rich collection of the Pistoian master, donated to the city of Florence in 1980.



The restoration works of the ancient church, rebuilt in the eighteenth century and since the beginning of the nineteenth century, deconsecrated and used for civil purposes, which had profoundly changed its appearance, were started in 1982 and completed in 1986. The architects Lorenzo Papi and Bruno Sacchi, in charge of drawing up the project for the recovery and re-functionalization of the complex, began with a &quot;dynamic&quot; reading of Marini&#39;s sculptural work, enlivened by the paths and the diversity of heights, and by a desire for dialogue between historical and material pre-existing structures contemporaries.

Marino Marini&#39;s sculptures have harsh and essential shapes and among the most recurring subjects the Horse and rider, explored in a whole range of poses and moods, from tiredness to danger to eroticism, and the Pomona, that is the traditional figure rounded and often pregnant female symbol of fertility from the time of the Etruscans.



The nearly two hundred pieces are arranged according to a thematic order that allows the visitor to freely approach the world of the artist, made up of knights, Pomones and portraits. The museum set-up respects with great sensitivity the indications of Marini in the choice of materials and natural lighting of the rooms, creating a rare effect of harmony between the container and the works. The path unfolds on several levels: the sculptures, in bronze and concrete, are distributed on all floors, while polychrome plasters and canvases, portraits and drawings are located on different heights. The multiplicity of expert techniques offers further evidence of the artist&#39;s interests for the expressive possibilities of the form.

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Marino Marini Museum – Former Church of San Pancrazio