Cybo Apartment

The name Cybo Apartment refers to the suite of seven rooms located in the northern wing of the building, immediately after the Sala Regia, in some parts, overlooking the internal garden, in others, the ancient via Papale, today called via del Plebiscito. This suite of rooms date back to end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth century, when they were constructed to be a private residence for Cardinal Lorenzo Mari Cybo (ca 1450-1504), incumbent of the Basilica of San Marco between 1491 and 1503. 

The name Cybo Apartment refers to the suite of seven rooms located in the northern wing of the building, immediately after the Sala Regia, in some parts, overlooking the internal garden, in others, the ancient via Papale, today called via del Plebiscito. This suite of rooms date back to end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth century, when they were constructed to be a private residence for Cardinal Lorenzo Mari Cybo (ca 1450-1504), incumbent of the Basilica of San Marco between 1491 and 1503. 

With the donation of the palace to the Republic of Venice, in 1564, the apartment became home to the titular cardinals of the Basilica of San Marco. In the 1920s, the art historian Federico Hermanin (1868-1953) assigned the seven rooms to the Museum: to this end, he renovated them in the Renaissance style, using sketches by Ludovico Seitz (1844-1908) for the stucco and gilding ceilings. 

Since the end of the Second World War, the rooms of the Cybo Apartment have housed the permanent collections of the Museum: pieces of particular significance include: the Christ Pantocrator, the Lunette from the Niche of the Palliums, the Madonna of Acuto, the Head of a Woman by Nicola Pisano, the Face of Christ by Beato Angelico, the four reliefs depicting Scenes from the Life of Saint Jerome by Mino da Fiesole. The chapel, with sixteenth-century decoration by Girolamo Muziano (1532-1592), houses the Bust of Innocent X by Alessandro Algardi.