Cassioli Museum

The Cassioli Museum in Asciano was created in 1991 thanks to the generous contribution of the Cassioli family, originally from the town, who gave an important collection of works of art. The Museum is the only one in the province of Siena to hold a collection entirely dedicated to Sienese paintings of the nineteenth century and is divided into two sections. The first contains sketches and works by artists who undertook their artistic studies at the Accademia delle Belle Arti di Siena (the Academy of Fine Art in Siena). Among them are Cesare Maccari, Pietro Aldi and Angelo Visconti. The second part is entirely dedicated to Amos Cassioli, described by Pietro Selvatico as “chief among the Tuscan portrait painters”.

The intensity of his portraits can be seen in works like Ritratto di signora (Portrait of a Lady), in an Ingres-like style, up to the later Ritratto di giovane signora (Portrait of a Young Lady). The painter also received important public recognition for his large paintings of historical subjects, among them the frescos of the Battaglia di San Martino (Battle of San Martino) and the Battaglia di Palestro (Battle of Palestro), painted between 1884 and 1886 as part of the complex decoration in the Sala del Risorgimento del Palazzo Pubblico di Siena (Hall of the Risorgimento in the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena).

Cassioli was appreciated abroad as well as in his own country. Following the success of the Competition promoted by the IOC (International Olympic Committee), he was tasked with creating the prototype of the medal to be used in the Olympic Games. The medal he designed was given to winning athletes at seventeen Olympiads, from Amsterdam in 1928 to Sydney in 2000. This achievement made the artist famous worldwide.