We urge you to continue your tour inside the Museum, which holds art works and liturgical objects and vestments from churches in and around Montalcino. Most of the museum holdings come from churches in the city.
Among the works once placed in the Co-Cathedral of SS. Salvatore we can admire:
Domenico Cafaggi (1530-1608), Annunciation, carved and painted wood.
The Virgin Mary is shown here with an open book, the sign of the incarnation of the Word.
Francesco Rustici (1592-1626), The Virgin and Child, the Young Saint John the Baptist, Blessed Bernardo Tolomei, and Saint Honophrius, oil on canvas.
This was originally in the second side chapel on the left. A similar version exists at the abbey of Monteoliveto Maggiore.
Tiberio Billò (1564-1587), Our Lady of the Rosary, oil on canvas.
The picture shows the Virgin and Child between Saints Dominic and Catherine, representatives of the order which spread the practice of reciting the rosary. This work, commissioned by the Congregation of the Holy Rosary for the altar of the Rosary chapel, is important above all from a devotional standpoint. The Virgin’s protection was considered the deciding factor in the victory of the Christian fleet over the Turks in the battle of Lepanto (7 October 1571), after which Pope Pius V instituted the feast of the Rosary.
Late 16th-century Sienese woodcarver, Jesus Christ and Saint John the Baptist, carved and painted wood.
These sculptures were part of the cathedral’s old baptismal font. Saint John is shown in the act of baptizing Jesus.
Florentine sculptor of the first quarter of the 16th century, The Blessing Christ Child, carved and painted wood.
This work presents the Savior, to whom the co-cathedral is dedicated, as a child in the act of blessing mankind. Christ was born for the salvation of the world, symbolized by the blue globe on which he stands erect, majestic and full of love.