Museo Nazionale Villa Guinigi

Frommer's Review

The early-15th-century palace built for Paolo Guinigi on the occasion of his second marriage is now home to the best gallery in Lucca's poor museum crop. The collections start with archaeological finds that are well labeled -- alas, only in Italian. Among the scraps from the Iron Age of the 10th century B.C. through the 8th-century-B.C. Villanovan period and 6th- to 3rd-century-B.C. Etruscan era are some reconstructed 3rd-century-B.C. Ligurian tombs that look like miniature versions of Fred Flintstone's suburban Bedrock home. There are some fascinating medieval carvings and capitals and a coin collection that proves just how important a symbol the Volto Santo has been throughout the ages.

Upstairs are some 14th- and 15th-century paintings, including panels by Ugolino Lorenzetti and Francesco Traini, and a Zainobi Machiavelli Madonna and Child with Saints. The 15th-century wood inlays show Luccan scenes as well as the Devil's Bridge at Borgo a Mozzano. Fra' Bartolomeo is represented here by a classically simple The Eternal Father with Saints and a Raphael-influenced Madonna della Misericordi.

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