The Diocesan Museum of Amalfi
The Diocesan Museum of Amalfi is located inside the Basilica del Crocifisso, the oldest part of the architectural complex of Amalfi Cathedral (also known as St Andrew’s Cathedral). It collects artefacts from the religious history of the diocese, from the Cathedral Treasury and from the diocesan territory.
The basilica, first dedicated to the Assumption, then to Saints Cosmas and Damian, takes its name from a wooden crucifix once placed on the high altar. It was built in the 9th century on the remains of an early Christian temple, but its present appearance is the result of various renovations. The current configuration, with a single nave, is the product of three significant interventions. The first, dating back to the 13th century and aimed at the construction of the Cloister of Paradise, required the demolition of the left aisle for reasons of space. The second, following the Tridentine reform, involved the demolition of the right nave. The last, carried out in the first half of the 20th century, consisted of a complex restoration that freed the building from Baroque superstructures.
During the last restoration campaign, carried out in the early 1980s and 1990s, the opportunity to use the building for exhibition purposes was considered. The museum was established in 1995 and opened in 1996. It houses silverware, sacred vestments, crosses and reliquaries belonging to the cathedral treasury, as well as valuable wooden sculptures and paintings of various chronology and origin. Together with the exhibits, the columns, capitals, bas-reliefs, inscriptions and frescoes that made up the furnishings of the ancient basilica form an integral part of the museum. In the apse and presbytery area, a space has also been created for exhibitions, conferences and events.
The centrepiece of the museum is a mitre with sumptuous gold and silver embroidery, precious stones and beads. Considered among the most precious and oldest mitres in Europe, according to documentary sources, it was made by the Amalfitan bishop Andrea de Alaneo (1294-1319). The background is decorated with around nineteen thousand oriental beads depicting leaf motifs of Gothic elegance. On the titulo and circulo are applied gold plates bearing cabochon gems surrounded by other small gems and pearls, while on the back are three gold quadrilobes with de plique enamels. A small curiosity: the mitre is reproduced in a painting by Simone Martini, kept in the Capodimonte Museum in Naples.
Also of great interest is the silver antependium depicting the Flagellation and Crucifixion of St. Andrew made in 1711 by the court silversmith of Charles of Bourbon, Lorenzo Cavaliere, for the altar of the cathedral crypt. It is one of the most significant works of Neapolitan Baroque goldsmithing. Finally, among the countless pieces on display, we cannot fail to mention the reliquary box, carved from bleached ox bone, made by the Embriachi workshop in the early 15th century. The box, which contained the relics of Saints Cosmas and Damian, depicts episodes of the miracles and martyrdoms to which the two saintly doctors were subjected: flagellation by flogging, crucifixion by shooting arrows, attempted drowning and decapitation.
Photo © Arnoldius – Wikipedia
