Museo delle Sinopie
Heritage & Culture
Pisa | Italy
2011
Created in the 14th century Hospital of Santa Chiara to conserve the frescoes’ sinopias of the Monumental Camposanto, the Sinopias Museum is a magic and precious place, for both the masterpieces kept there and the “container”, which is in itself valuable. The arrangement of the interior spaces lies in a system of platforms connected to one another at different heights, propped up by metal structures which are anchored to the ground and suspended by tie beams. Some display panels are placed on the longitudinal walls and hung at various heights, and others put under the first balcony. The lighting system aims at lighting the sinopias uniformly, emphasizing at the same time the display setting as it was conceived by the restoration project.
Professional projectors equipped with blade filter have been used to softly light the sinopias placed at the upper heights, whereas for the sinopias hung at the lower levels the choice has fallen on linear fixtures hidden along the string-course of the metal structures and customized with corten finish in order to minimize the visual impact. All fixtures are characterized by a special screen whose upper part has been sandblasted in order to soften light especially on the portion of the sinopias which are closer to the light sources.
