Castelfiorentino – BeGo Benozzo Gozzoli Museum

Via Testaferrata 31, Castelfiorentino
phone +39 0571 64448
www.museobenozzogozzoli.it

Opening hours:
Monday and Friday 9 – 13 a.m.; Tuesday and Thursday 4 – 7 p.m.; Saturday, Sunday and on holidays 10 – 12 a-m.; 4 – 7 p.m. Closed: every Wednesday, Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, Easter Day

"his colors, for being used resolutely and in fresco, are still today vivid and fresh"
[Giorgio Vasari, The Lives, Ed. Torrentiniana, p. 282]

Vasari, in his Lives, also writes about painting techniques. He insistently states that

"those who wish to paint on walls, shall use the fresco technique"
[Giorgio Vasari, The Lives, Ed. Torrentiniana and Giuntiniana p. 130]

He knows that in this way the color penetrates into the chemistry of the plaster and has a lasting effect; it is also for this reason that he praises Benozzo Gozzoli, who

"In the Chapel of the Palace of the Medici painted the Story of the Magi in fresco"
[Giorgio Vasari, The Lives, Ed. Torrentiniana and Giuntiniana, p. 376]

This artwork was commissioned from Benozzo by Piero de' Medici, and it places him among the greatest Renaissance painters. Benozzo adds some details to the fresco with a dry technique: jewels, clothes, horses’ harnesses, trees, fruit, blooming meadows, angels' wings. An effect of magnificence that was obtained with lapis-lazuli, shiny lacquers and pure gold leaves, that are exalted by the light of torches.

And the BeGo, their ideal home, protects the masterpieces that Benozzo created for the roadside tabernacles of the Madonna della Tosse and of the Visitation. Here we find an exquisite narration, among visual, acoustic and tactile surprises, in a tale that is not only something to read, but to be lived. We can find the Visitation Tabernacle of 1491, which is over six meters in height. The stairs allow for a closer experience of the sophisticated pictorial details. The second floor is dedicated to the Tabernacle of the Madonna della Tosse of 1484, coming from the homonymous chapel on the via Francigena.

The visit will give us a very precise feeling: that Benozzo has just put down his wet brush, and that he is somewhere in the room talking about the techniques of buon fresco with Vasari.

The BeGo is fully accessible to people with physical, sensory and cognitive disabilities. It has an inclusive tour of tactile exploration and multimedia supports for deaf people. The museum organizes guided tours, tactile tours, laboratories, meetings for people with Alzheimer’s disease and those who take care of them, for people with intellectual disabilities and autism spectrum disorder.