Museums
The Palace's History
Venanzio Filippo Piersanti was born in Matelica in 1688. In that period, his parents Francesco Maria di Giovanni and Faustina Orsi owned some property and were members of the town government. His grandfather Giovanni was the St Biagio confraternity leader between 1654 and 1662. One of Venanzio's uncles, Abbot Antonio, worked as tax collector for the Pifari endowment in Rome and the St Giovanni confraternity in Matelica. Francesco Maria on November the 30th 1698 was bestowed with the title of patrician.
Between the 1700 and 1707 he was one of Matelica's priors and took office as steward on October the 15th 1707. In 1699, at the age of four, Venanzio was sent to one of the Rome's seminaries. When he was eleven years old, he was tonsured and on December the 22nd 1703 was admitted to the lectorate. On March the 30th 1718, at the age of thirty, Piersanti was appointed the Sixth Master of Ceremonies at the court of Pope Clemente XI who also nominated him as his guest and member of the papal court.
Piesanti was re-appointed Master of Ceremonies by Pope Innocenzo III (1721) and Benedetto XIII (1724) who designated him as his private secretary and chaplain on July the 25th 1725.
Also Pope Clemente XII, during the first year of his pontificate, on July the 29th 1730 confirmed Venanzio in his offices. On July the 20th 1740 Pope Benedetto XIV made Piersanti First Master of Ceremonies and his valet.
As First Master of Ceremonies, private secretary and personal chaplain of eight Popes, he enjoyed many privileges and he was bestowed with some aristocratic titles such as "Lateran Count" and " Knight of the Gold Spur".
The Piersanti family Chapel
Thanks to the important offices that he held, Venanzio Piersanti was able to collect a large number of paintings, tapestry, pieces of furniture and various artistic objects, which were partially moved to his palace in Matelica.
In those times was also built a small family chapel, which was the first nucleus of the present museum. The chapel, where the Masses were celebrate every day, was also opened to the Matelica citizens. It was enriched with fine reliquaries and precious holy relics largely came from the Abbot Antonio Pierssanti collection. Amongst them, the most valuable are the oldest " Blessed Virgin niche " the "Holy Face of Christ" and many kinds of relics such as the "Virgin's" the "Holy Apostles'" and the "Passion's".
Pope Benedetto XV allowed Piersanti to celebrate Mass in the chapel on the Virgin Nativity. Still today, on September 8th the Museum is free open to the public and citizens can attend a Mass.
On June 26th 1745 the Chapel was endowed with a bell and on May 19th 1752 the Pope granted a plenary indulgence and allowed the Exposure of the Holy Face of Christ, a copy of the original effigy housed in the Vatican.
Venanzio Piersanti died on April 23rd 1761 and fives days after his death was buried in the St Peter's sacristy in Rome .
Venanzio's inheritance went to his sister Giocondina, who lived with him in Rome for a long time, and his brother Giovanni, who resided in the family Palace in Matelica.
According to some experts on local history, whose studies are not published yet, many pieces of Palace's furniture had been bought by Piersantis at the beginning of the 18th century and came from the Pellegrini collection. Also the Chapel furniture was equally divided between Giocondina and Govanni, but the Bishop of Camerino, Patrizio Viviani, intervened in order to preserve the integrity of Chapel's artistic and religious heritage.
As we said, the family Chapel and Palace's furniture are the first nucleus of the present museum.
Francesco Maria Piersanti, who was the only male descendant of Giovanni and also Venanzio's nephew, on September 1782 made his testament in which asked to be buried in the family Chapel, which was dedicated to St Antonio from Padova. He also left some bequests to his sisters Nun Maria Costante, Modesta and Venanza, while designed the older sister Faustina as his sole heir, because she was the only one who had male descendants.
On her deathbed, Giocondina left all the furniture of the household oratory in Rome to the family Chapel in Matelica. She also sold all her possessions and with the proceeds, except for some bequests to her nieces and sister-in-low, founded a local charity institution, which had the duty to celebrate in her honor a Mass every day; furthermore, she ordered the inheritance would be left to the Bishop of Matelica, in case the Palace and the Chapel had been sold or mortgage.
Origin and development of the museum
At the beginning of the 20th century, Teresa Capeci Piersanti donated the Palace and all works of art that it contained to the Cathedral, as her husband marquis Filippo Piersanti - who was the last descendant of the Piersanti household and Mayor of Matelica after the creation of the kingdom of Italy - had asked in his testament.
As Mayor of Matelica, Filippo Piersanti, together with the Town Council, decided to found a civic museum and endow it with works came from some monasteries suppressed after the Unification of Italy.
Unluckily, the civic museum was not established, and so today we do not have any knowledge about some pieces of art that were acquired from the collections of the religious orders suppressed during that period.
In Piersanti Museum archives there is no topographic inventory that can show us how the 19th century Palace's furniture was, but we have another one dating back to the period following Vennazio Piersanti's death (18th century).
Sennen Bigiaretti, who was appointed director and curator of Piersanti Museum by the Bishop of Matelica, in 1918 compiled an inventory in which he illustrated the Palace furniture when the museum had already changed thanks to the establishment of an art gallery where a small number of works of art, which came from some confraternities or churches in ruins, took place.
During the Bigiaretti period some other works were acquired through three important donations that were respectively made by the Municipality of Matelica , Marchioness Pulcheria De Santis and Biagiaretti himself.
As it is described in Bigiaretti's inventory, the Municipality endowment, which has a historical importance for us, consists of four black velvet robes; nine liveries; ten jackets; a pair of trousers; ten hats made of velvet and damask; a black cape; two green velvet brocades, which are in needs of restoration; some pieces of furniture such as two 17th century gilt armchairs; a ballot box with twenty drawers; a wrought iron chandelier decorated with leaves and four cross-shaped wings; and finally one of Lucarellis' coats of arms representing a hook which ends in a comet and is surrounded by four geese.
Most valuable is the donation that Pulcheria De Santis made between 1902 and 1915.
It is a collection of still life paintings dating back to the 17th-18th century, which were placed by Bigiaretti in the so-called Arrases' room. Amongst of them, we can appreciate two still life paintings representing laid tables; two paintings reproducing flowers, which are one meter and half tall; a famish still life painting portraying lemons and gillyflowers and many other canvas.
Sennen Bigiaretti,too, left to the museum many works of art such as three brocades; fragments of a 11th -12th century fresco; a small collection of coloured paper dating back to the 18th century and a red brocade representing the Holy House in Loreto; In the last few years the museum was enriched with many other works donated by private citizens.