The Cathedral Museum preserves a remarkable artistic heritage linked to the historical story of the Cathedral and the figure of St. Geminianus, the city’s patron saint, and is composed of several representative paintings from the Emilian school of painting between the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as a rich series of liturgical furnishings and apparatus. The Lapidary houses reliefs, sculptures, and inscriptions from the Roman, medieval, and Renaissance periods recovered during maintenance and restoration work on the Cathedral building in the 19th and 20th centuries or removed from their original locations, or even uncovered during excavation interventions. The visit begins with five paintings depicting the apparitions of Christ painted by Bernardino Cervi in 1621 for the destroyed Chapel of the Resurrection, and a rich 17th-century altar set in silver, consisting of a cross and six candlesticks, used as equipment for the main altar during solemn occasions. Dedicated to St. Geminianus, the second room hosts a large 14th-century embossed copper image depicting the Modenese patron saint and the liturgical furnishings which hagiographic tradition attributes to the Saint, such as the portable Romanesque altar and the 16th-century pastoral staff. Completing the setup is the rich equipment of the Saint’s altar located in the crypt (candlesticks, palm-holders, silver lamps) donated to the Cathedral by the Modenese Community and made in 1833. The third and fourth rooms are dedicated to the Cathedral’s treasure, made up of liturgical vestments, altar silverware, and reliquaries. In the tapestry room are samples with the Stories of Genesis woven in Brussels around 1560-70. At the end of the visit, the permanent manuscript exhibition displays precious rarities from the attached Chapter Archive on rotation. Within the Lapidary’s heritage, the “metopes” of the Cathedral predominate in importance and aesthetic quality, a magnificent series of eight large Romanesque sculptures characterized by unusual images of monstrous and fantastic beings. The work of a follower of Wiligelmo, they were originally placed on the heads of the arches of the central nave. It also includes Roman marbles variously reused during the Cathedral’s construction, stone fragments from buildings preceding the current cathedral, the Ark of St. Geminianus, some Romanesque reliefs and sculptures produced within the great workshop directed by Wiligelmo, and other works of the Campionese Masters.
Information on Modena Cathedral Museums
Via Lanfranco, 6,
41121 Modena (Modena)
0594396969
archiviocapitolaremo@basilicametropolitana.191.it
Source: MIBACT
