The tabernacle, probably of domestic origin, presents one of the most typical subjects of Renaissance plastic, the embrace between Mother and Son as a symbol of a new humanitas, with the Virgin who is seated, with grace and elegance, on a classical throne in faldistorio, decorated on the left side with a “pine cone” plant motif, a symbol of fecunditỳ, and an embroidered cushion. The relief with the Madonna with her naked Son standing, with her hand resting on the right breast, has been attributed to Donatello's youth activity (Bellosi 2002; Pisani, 2009; Cavazzini 2013) for the vibrant reinterpretation of classical antiquity and the 'high quality' of the modeling, which in various passages reveals the signs of a delicate "stick" hatching.

Despite the very abraded pictorial film, the fragment of the Madonna and Child fresco has a bright color and a very delicate and refined design. In the image, the Virgin, a young woman sadly presages the fate of her Son, holds the blessing baby Jesus in her arms, holding a goldfinch in her left hand, an animal dear to children. and traditionally connected to the Passion of Christ. The painting is attributable to Agnolo Gaddi, who painted it in the years when he was frescoing the Chapel of the Sacra Cintola in the Duomo. The fresco was recovered in the area of the Palazzo delle Scuole, the building with a portico adjacent to the Praetorium, in a room originally connected to the medieval church of San Donato.

The oldest existing representation of the Sacred Cintola history, the legendary tale of the relic of Prato and its protagonist, Michele, is due to Bernardo Daddi. The precious predella was part of the altarpiece (now lost) preserved in the Cathedral of Prato, constituting at the same time a celebratory and didactic element. In the four panels of the predella, seven episodes divided by refined bands with geometric decorations, narrate in sequence how the Cintola reached the city of Prato. The detail refers to the second panel of the predella: St. Thomas entrusts the Girdle to the priest who will keep it in the Holy Land.

It is the first easel painting documented to the painter, a masterpiece of seventeenth-century Florentine painting. The protagonist is Semiramide who is warned of the fire of Babylon and the consequent fall of the city by the squire Artace. The canvas refers to Bilivert and the late Rosselli, also showing influences of the Lorraine engravers Callot and Bellange. Theatrically set for successive floors, the scene focuses on the conversation between the two main figures, Semiramis, imposing and luminous in soft robes, and the knight, who brings her the news of the fire of Babylon.

The precious altarpiece commissioned in 1502 by the Gonfaloniere and the Priors of Prato to decorate the Audience of the Town Hall, from the famous painter from Prato, son of Fra Filippo. A meditative and suspended atmosphere is recreated in the precious table, in a livid, stormy light, which accentuates shadows and contrasts in the sweet, bloodless figures, intimately gathered in the foreground, between which a silent conversation of glances is established. Even the landscape with ruins seems to participate in the climate of dramatic religiosity that blows from the altarpiece.

The small arched altarpiece was made between 1572 and 1573 on commission by Andrea Verzoni and Francesco Guizzelmi, governors of the company of the Archangel Raphael, for an altar in the oratory of the same company. The work belongs to one of the happiest moments of Poppi's activity and documents his ability to blend Andrea del Sarto's suggestions into a completely personal synthesis (look at Tobiolo's sleeves and the puff of the Archangel's robe) , from Pontormo (Tobiolo's penetrating gaze and taste for iridescence) and from Rosso (the head of the Archangel and the hair of both).

Original interpretation of the encounter between Christ and the Magdalene, recognized as a masterpiece by Battistello Caracciolo, an artist we know today was in direct relationship with Merisi in Naples, and who was the first to convey the powerful luministic naturalism in the Neapolitan environment with a personal interpretation contemporary and later generation painters. The work is characterized by the strength of the gesture and the theatricality of the story borrowed from the artistic experiences of the Florentine painters of the early seventeenth century.

Originally placed on the altar of the ward of the ancient Pellegrinaio of the Spedale della Misericordia e Dolce, the imposing structure, today devoid of the original carpentry with lateral supporting pillars, consists of five compartments and a double order of platforms that welcome the narrative scenes. From an iconographic point of view, the characters depicted in the main compartments are closely connected both with the images relating to their biographical events and with those of Childhood and the Passion of Christ contained in the two predellas. In the center is the image of the Virgin enthroned with the child, described in the act of gently touching her hand, while in the right she holds a cord to which a bird is tied (today barely visible due to the large vertical gap that affects the two figures). The artist's signature is found under the main compartment with the Virgin enthroned.

This work with a mysterious and lyrical character at the same time, close to the surrealist imaginary, could be traced back to the book by H. G. Wells, L'Homme invisible, of 1897, translated into French in 1932. The sculpture is part of a series developed by early Thirties focused on the same subject. As suggested by the title, it is a head, evoked by the shape of the hair similar to the wings of a bird in flight, supported by two intertwined hands. Lipchitz's interest in anatomical parts recalls the sculpture of Auguste Rodin and Henry Moore, to which he was strongly attracted.

The lunette was detached in 1923 for conservation reasons from the Oratory of Sant’Antonio under the patronage of Ginori. The psychological refinement of the angelic heads recalls the melancholy figures painted by the late Filippino, while in the modeling and sculptural head of the saint there are references to the harsh expressionism of Verrocchio. The bezel is made up of twelve pieces mounted and assembled together, according to the typical methodology of the Della Robbia workshop.

The Madonna del Ceppo, a capital work in Filippo Lippi's mature career, was financed in 1453 by the Prato charity institution of the same name, founded by Francesco di Marco Datini. The altarpiece has therefore become the emblem of the city's generosity. The deliberately archaic setting is the characteristic of this large arched altarpiece with a gold background, used as a tabernacle, which evokes the abstract and iconic model of the fourteenth-century Majesties. In the Madonna, Lippi represents a model of humanitỳ and classic beauty, prior to meeting Lucrezia buti, a regular face veiled with melancholy which in its intensitỳ confirms the full Lippesque autography.

Lorenzo Monaco, a painter linked to the powerful Camaldolese order and the Florentine artistic cenacle of Santa Maria degli Angeli, shows off his refined style deeply imbued with spirituality in the Prato polyptych, with a symbolic use of color that anticipates Beato Angelico. The Sienese matrix of Lorenzo Monaco's painting is found in the insistent calligraphy, in the elegant stylization of the figures, in the ways of finishing the robes of the saints by modulating their drapery. The representation of the Madonna in her most humble and cultured image follows the dictates of the Camaldolese order devoted to her.

The fresco depicts the city of Prato with the saints Stefano and Giovanni Battista and the benefactors Michele Dagomari and Francesco Datini, and is attributed to the brothers Pietro and Antonio di Miniato in the years around 1415. The fresco includes a concise city view, in which the symbolic buildings of Prato in the early fifteenth century are recognizable, namely the Parish Church, the Town Hall, the Palazzo Pretorio, the Palazzo di Francesco di Marco Datini, the walls and towers.

The panel, despite the evident pictorial discontinuities attributable to the extensive intervention of the master's collaborators, is configured as a work of great fascination both for the elegant setting of the figures of the saints with anticipatory movements by Botticelli and for the lenticular naturalistic description of the carpet of leaves and flowers, probably alluding to the name of the city of Prato, and where the real plants of dandelion and buttercup can be recognized. On the back of the table there are some sketches, among which an angel in profile is distinguished, made in charcoal by the students according to a custom of the workshop to exercise the hand.

Between the two works by Ardengo Soffici exhibited in the section on Soffici and the Prato School, Cabine , painted in Forte dei Marmi in 1927, is an expression of the "return to order" phase after the formal experiments of the historical avant-gardes, which aimed to recovery of the Tuscan tradition and the effective quality of art. The painting, in the harmonized tonal composition that recalls the ancient fresco, in the simple rendering of nature, in the “pure painting”, is poetically close to the contemporary works of his friend Carlo Carrà.