Museum Horne Museum

Herbert Horne's donation to the Italian state enabled the birth of a Foundation and a Museum, which have the aim of valorising and exhibiting to the public the rich collection of art, brought together by the English scholar and subsequently enriched by several acquisitions made during the 1920s and 30s, to attain a total of over six thousand works.

The Horne Museum, opened for the first time in 1921, follows the intentions of its creator, and thus maintains its character of an urban residence fitted with precious furnishings and artistic masterpieces of the thirteenth through seventeenth centuries, in which it is possible to re-live the past, and discover the practises and customs of the city of Florence.

Among the works of exceptional value and beauty, one can note Giotto's panel depicting Saint Stephen, a Triptych by Pietro Lorenzetti, Benozzo Gozzoli's Deposition from the Cross, Piero di Cosimo's Penitent Saint Jerome, and other works by Simone Martini, Masaccio, Filippo Lippi, Filippino Lippi, Bartolomeo Ammannati, and Giambologna.

No less important are the highly prized antique furnishings and decorations, including the collection of ceramics, medals, and seals, the series of objects of everyday use, from the fifteenth-century knives and forks to the complex scientific instruments, all collected by Herbert Horne with the aim of documenting daily life during the Renaissance.

Of particular interest, moreover, is the archive of more than a thousand drawings and antique prints, with works by Raphael, Rubens, and Tiepolo. There is also a rich library, which holds about five thousand volumes, among them illuminated manuscripts, incunabula, and sixteenth century rare editions.

Beyond the value of the individual objects, the museum fascinates visitors through its harmonious juxtaposition of works of art with the splendid frame of an actual sixteenth-century mansion.