Across from the Duomo in the deconsecrated church of the Gesù is a little museum where almost every work is a masterpiece. Just inside the door on the right is a Roman sarcophagus from the late 2nd century A.D., made of Apuan marble and carved with a battle scene full of action. The work so impressed Donatello that he rushed home to describe it to his buddy Filippo Brunelleschi, whereupon the architect scurried off to Cortona to sketch the object.

Head next into the former nave of the old church, with its 1536 carved and painted wood ceiling by a local maestro called Mezzanotte ("Midnight"). There you'll see a crucified Christ (1320) gushing blood, by a young Pietro Lorenzetti; a Madonna and Child with Saints (1435) by Sassetta (another possible Cortonan) in which Mary looks with surprising tenderness (for early-15th-c. art) at her baby; and a late-15th-century marble baptismal font. In Bartolomeo della Gatta's Assumption (1475), Mary, surrounded by a host of heavenly musicians and russet cherubim, dangles her girdle almost suggestively to the incredulous Thomas below. (The other saints are looking very pious.)

The room's true treasures are the Fra' Angelicos. The polyptych Madonna Enthroned with Four Saints (1437), in bright primaries, stands out against the gold-leaf background. Over the altar is the theme at which Angelico was the master, an Annunciation (1436). The delicate feathers on Gabriel's wings and carpet of wildflowers show Angelico's command of minute detail, and the composition demonstrates his deep understanding of meaning in the Bible stories he illustrated so well. In the background is the finale of Man's fall from grace, the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden; the theme is brought full circle in the foreground's Annunciation of the birth of Christ, the beginning of Man's salvation. The room behind the altar has a Pietro Lorenzetti Madonna and Child and a damaged 13th-century St. Margaret of Cortona by the Aretine school.

The large room off the entrance gives you a chance to appreciate how skilled the master was in comparison to his workshop, his school (painters who imitated him), or even his nephew. Luca Signorelli himself painted the Deposition (1502), with the crucifixion, the resurrection, and a surreal city by a lake all in the background, and in the foreground a swooning Mary, a well-modeled Christ, and a saint pocketing a crucifixion nail and the crown of thorns -- presumably destined for numerous Italian reliquaries. Vasari tells us the face of Christ is actually a portrait of Luca's son, who died during the 1502 plague. Luca also signed the Communion of the Apostles (1512), painted with a very strong sense of perspective and liberal use of bright primaries and illusionistic marble floor panels (notice Judas in the foreground -- ashamed of his imminent betrayal, he can't swallow the Host and instead hides it in his purse as he turns away). The other paintings in the room are by Luca's workshop or the school that followed him.

Open Hours

Apr-Sept Tues-Sun 9:30am-1pm and 3:30-7pm; Oct Tues-Sun 10am-1pm and 3:30-6pm; Nov-Mar Tues-Sun 10am-1pm and 3-5pm

Prices

Admission 5€ ($6.50) adult, 1€ ($1.30) ages 8-12