Historical and Artistic Heritage

Over more than six hundred years of history, the Institution has amassed an important artistic heritage of works of art that include frescoes, mobile paintings, sculptures, stucco and terracotta objects, and illuminated manuscripts. Artefacts from commissions made by the historical Hospital and bequests made to it by other institutions or private individuals. An appreciable expansion of these collections occurred in the 18th century following the administrative merger of other institutions and most of their artistic assets, therefore, transferred to the Innocenti.

Despite the 19^th century disposal of some treasures, sold to make up for the Hospital's financial needs, the Institute managed to safeguard a considerable art collection, emblematic of its historical and cultural identity and well represented in the collection on display at the Museo degli Innocenti.

Over the centuries, frescoes that still embellish various rooms in the building were added to the portable works: the 18^th-century vault of the Church of Santa Maria degli Innocenti with the Moses Saved from the Waters by Sante Pacini and, in some of the rooms of the Institute, narratives with Scenes from the Life at the Innocenti and the Dispute of St. Catherine of Alexandria, painted in the early 17^th century by Bernardino Poccetti. He is also responsible for the main frescoes inside Brunelleschi's Loggiato, in open dialogue with other works executed between the 15^th and 19^th centuries.