The monastery of San Francesco is home, since September 2002, to the Museum of Sacre Art of Greve in Chanti and documentation centre for sacred art in Chianti. It has information on the main works contained in the area’s churches and pievi, which together constitute the so called “museo diffuso” or multi site museum.
In December 2004 an archaeological section was opened to house a collection of items found during excavations in the area. The collection consists mainly of ceramic tableware and objects of everyday from prehistory until the beginnings of the renaissance. The museum has three main sections; paintings and sculpture, gold, silver and holy ornaments from the 14th to the 19th centuries and Tuscan made vestments from the 16th to the 18th centuries of various types and provenance. In the chapel the works worth a mention are a 14th Century Annunciation from the Church of Santa Croce in Greve, a Madonna and Child with Saints Bartholomew and Francesco by Francesco Granacci from the Church of Santa Maria in Cintoia, an early 16th Century Madonna and Child with Saints Antonio Abate and Lucia from the Church of San Martino in Sezzate and a 16th Century marble bas-relief depicting San Francesco from the Church of San Pietro in Sillano. The work which is probably the most important of the whole collection has been kept in its original position over the altar in the oratory. This is a large group of figures in coloured terracotta, the Lamentation of Christ, composed of seven statues surrounded by a cornice of garlands of fruit and flowers. After a recent restoration a likeness with the work of Baccio da Montelupo has been perceived.

Delen