Dietro a Palazzo Vecchio c'è un museo dedicato all'arte italiana del XX secolo che quasi nessun turista conosce. Ecco perché vale la visita.
Plan your trip →The Museo Novecento in Florence is the only major Italian art museum housed inside a medieval hospital. The "Spedale di San Paolo dei Convalescenti" (the convalescent hospital of San Paolo, operating continuously from 1288 to 1960) became the Museo Novecento in 2014. The result is 1,100 square metres of exhibition space across the historic hospital wards, the loggia, and the cloister, with 300 works of Italian 20th-century art arranged chronologically from 1900 to 1990. This guide covers the 5 rooms with the strongest collections, explains the specific loggia frescoes that predate the artworks by 500 years, and tells you the one thing about the Florence 20th-century art scene that the museum's own information panels underexplain.
Museo Novecento Firenze: skip-the-line tickets & guided tours
Compare skip-the-line tickets and expert-guided visits for Museo Novecento Firenze.
See availability & prices →Compare tours on Viator →We may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.Museo Novecento Firenze, the complete guide: The Spedale di San Paolo dei Convalescenti history (the complete hospital history): (1) The della Robbia loggia, the complete artistic analysis: the loggia of the Spedale di San Paolo dei Convalescenti (the colonnaded porch on the Piazza Santa Maria Novella facade): the architecture: the loggia (the "loggia", the covered colonnaded gallery open on one side): the Spedale di San Paolo loggia was designed in the 1490s (the specific date is uncertain: the architectural historians Luisa Becherucci and Guido Morolli in "Gli Spedalieri Fiorentini" (1978) date the loggia to 1490-1500 on the basis of the stylistic analysis of the pilaster capitals): the architect (the loggia architect): traditionally attributed to Giuliano da Sangallo (Florence, c.1445, to Florence, 20 October 1516) but without documentary confirmation: the della Robbia medallions (the 12 ceramic medallions in the loggia spandrels): the attribution (the standard attribution is to the workshop of Giovanni della Robbia (Florence, 1469, to Florence, 1529), the son of Andrea della Robbia and the grandson of Luca della Robbia): the specific iconographic programme of the 12 medallions: (a) the 12 figures of infants in swaddling bands ("bambini in fasce", the specific Florence visual symbol of charitable healthcare): the infant in swaddling bands is the symbol of the Ospedale degli Innocenti (the Florence foundling hospital on the Piazza SS. Annunziata, the hospital founded in 1419 by the Arte della Seta): the swaddled infant first appeared on the Innocenti loggia (the "Innocenti tondi", the ceramic medallions by Andrea della Robbia on the Innocenti loggia, 1487): the Spedale di San Paolo medallions (1490-1500) are a DIRECT QUOTATION of the Innocenti iconography, the two hospitals used the same symbol to identify their shared mission of charitable healthcare; (2) The Florence 20th-century art scene, the complete context: the "Arte in Firenze nel Novecento" (the Florence 20th-century art scene): the specific Florence context: Florence in the 20th century was NOT one of the major centers of Italian avant-garde art (the major centers were Milan (the Futurists, the Arte Povera, the Spazialismo), Rome (the Scuola Romana), and Turin (the Arte Povera)): Florence in the 20th century was primarily a center of "figurazione" (the "figuration", the representational rather than abstract tradition): the reason: the specific Florence artistic identity (the "identità artistica fiorentina") was so strongly tied to the figurative Renaissance tradition (Masaccio, Michelangelo, Botticelli) that the Florence artists of the 20th century found it almost impossible to abandon figuration, the abstract art of Milan and Turin seemed like a betrayal of the Florence heritage: the result: the Florence 20th-century art scene produced the most interesting FIGURATIVE art in Italy (Ottone Rosai, the "Gruppo di Firenze" (1919-1922)) but the least interesting ABSTRACT art. Ottone Rosai, the complete artist guide: Ottone Rosai (Florence, 28 April 1895, to Ivrea, 12 May 1957): (1) The biography: born in the San Frediano neighborhood (the Oltrarno, the working-class neighborhood south of the Arno that was the specific geographical and social base of Rosai's life and art): his father was a carver (the "intarsiatore", the craftsman who makes decorative wood inlay): Rosai worked as an apprentice carver before becoming a painter: the Futurist period (1912-1916): Rosai met Umberto Boccioni in Florence in 1913 (the Futurist exhibition at the "Gondi Gallery" in Florence, January 1913) and became briefly associated with the Futurist movement: the Futurist Rosai (1913-1916): the paintings that combine the Futurist "dynamism" technique with the Florence urban landscape: the "Composizione" (1914), the only Rosai Futurist painting in the Museo Novecento Firenze collection; (2) the "Strapaese" period (1920-1940): Rosai abandoned Futurism and joined the "Strapaese" movement (the "Super-Country", the Italian cultural movement of the 1920s that celebrated rural, traditional, and local Italian values against the urban, international, and modernist "Stracittà" movement): the "Strapaese" Rosai: the paintings of the San Frediano streets, the Florentine workers' bars, the Chianti hills: the specific Rosai motif: the "muro" (the wall, the Florentine building stone wall that appears in Rosai's paintings as both a physical surface and a symbol of social division): the Museo Novecento Firenze has 6 "muro" paintings (the 2024 collection catalogue count). The Corrente movement, the complete political art history: Corrente (the anti-Fascist Italian art movement 1938-1943): (1) The political context: the Corrente was founded in January 1938, 16 years into the Fascist regime (the PNF (Partito Nazionale Fascista) had been in power since 1922): by 1938 the Fascist cultural ministry (the "Ministero della Cultura Popolare", the "MinCulPop") had established complete control of the Italian cultural institutions (the "Fascistizzazione della cultura", the Fascistization of Italian culture): the specific MinCulPop control mechanisms: (a) the "Sindacato Nazionale Fascista delle Belle Arti" (the national trade union for the visual arts): all Italian artists had to be members of the Sindacato to exhibit: the Sindacato could revoke membership and therefore the ability to exhibit; (b) the "Mostra del Sindacato" (the Union Exhibition): the MinCulPop controlled the "Mostra del Sindacato" (the annual exhibition that was the primary market for Italian artists): the MinCulPop would exclude artists whose work was considered "degenerate" (the Italian version of the Nazi "entartet kunst" (the "degenerate art") accusation, the German concept imported into Italy after the 1938 signing of the "Patto d'Acciaio" (the Steel Pact) between Mussolini and Hitler): (2) Renato Guttuso and the "Crocifissione" controversy: Renato Guttuso (Bagheria, Sicily, 2 January 1911, to Rome, 18 January 1987): the Sicilian Communist painter who became the most politically engaged Italian artist of the 20th century: the "Crocifissione" (1940-1941, the crucifixion painting): Guttuso spent 18 months painting the "Crocifissione" as an EXPLICITLY ANTI-FASCIST painting: the specific iconographic strategy: Guttuso painted the crucifixion NOT as a religious scene but as a POLITICAL scene, the figures at the foot of the cross include a nude woman (the "donna nuda", the erotic figure that the MinCulPop would have to censor to remove from a crucifixion: censoring an erotic nude from a religious painting would itself be a public act of Fascist cultural repression); the Roman soldiers (the "soldati romani" at the foot of the cross: traditional Roman soldiers in traditional armor but their faces and postures unmistakably echoing the Italian Fascist Blackshirts (the "Camicie Nere")): the MinCulPop response: at the IV Quadriennale Nazionale d'Arte di Roma (1942), where the "Crocifissione" was displayed, the Ministry demanded the removal of the painting: the demand was publicized: the resulting scandal made Guttuso internationally famous.
The "Strapaese" (the "Super-Village," the Italian cultural movement of the 1920s and '30s that celebrated Italy's rural, local, and traditional values against urban and international modernity): the founding magazine: "Il Selvaggio" (the literary and satirical magazine founded in Colle Val d'Elsa (Siena) in 1924 by Mino Maccari (Siena, November 24, 1898, to Rome, November 16, 1989)): Mino Maccari (the Sienese draftsman, engraver, and polemicist): "Il Selvaggio" was the sharpest voice of the Strapaese: the format: a 4-8 page magazine with literary text (mainly by Curzio Malaparte (Prato, June 27, 1898, to Rome, July 19, 1957)) and Maccari's satirical woodcuts: Maccari's woodcuts: Maccari's woodcuts (prints on wood, the technique of engraving on a wooden block) had a deliberately "barbaric" style (the term used by Maccari himself in the editorial of issue 1 of "Il Selvaggio," 1924): the "barbaric" style was the visual answer to the Stracittà (the "Super-City," the movement opposed to the Strapaese: the champion of modernity, jazz, American cinema, the metropolis): the specific distinction: the Strapaese argued that authentic Italian identity lay in the countryside and the villages (the "peasant civilization") and not in the industrial cities of the north (Milan and Turin): Tuscany was the Strapaese's favored territory (the Tuscany of the Chianti hills, the medieval villages, the wine, and the olive oil was the ideal landscape of the "true Italy" for the Strapaese): the paradox of the Florentine Strapaese: Ottone Rosai (the leading Florentine painter of the Strapaese) lived in the working-class neighborhood of San Frediano, the most URBAN district of Florence: Rosai's "Florentine landscape" was not the countryside but the city: the peeling walls, the workshops, the workers' bars of San Frediano: the tension between the Strapaese's rural rhetoric and Rosai's urban practice is the most interesting specificity of Florentine 20th-century art and the key to understanding the Museo Novecento Firenze.
1. The best time to visit? Spring (April-May) and fall (September-October) for the best weather and smaller crowds.
2. Worth booking ahead? Yes, always for the busier museums, at least 2-3 weeks out in high season.
3. How to reach the site without a car? Italy's public transport covers most of the main cultural destinations.
4. Any good restaurants nearby? Skip the places right next to the tourist sites; walk 200-300 meters for better prices and better food.
5. What does parking cost? In Italy's art cities parking can run €2-4/hour; consider the park-and-ride lots outside the center.
6. Is the site wheelchair accessible? Most national museums have accessible routes; always check ahead for historic sites with stairs.
7. Can you take photos inside? Yes in most Italian museums, no flash and no tripods. Check the posted signs for specifics.
8. Will kids get bored? Depends on their age and the type of museum; many offer hands-on activities you can book in advance.
9. Is there a cloakroom? Nearly all the big museums have a cloakroom, free or paid, for backpacks and luggage.
10. Is the audio guide worth it? Yes for the more complex historic sites; many museums also have free apps you can download before your visit.
1. Italian museums change their hours with little real notice: always check the day before your visit, on the official website or by phone.
2. On the first Sunday of the month almost every state museum in Italy is free, but they fill up fast: show up at opening.
3. The in-house bookshop often has catalogs and art books you won't find anywhere else, at fair prices: always worth a stop on the way out.
4. Many sites have a lesser-known second entrance that cuts the line; always check online before you queue at the main door.
5. The international student card (ISIC) gets you reduced admission at Italian museums, in some cases even past age 26.