The Story of Siena and San Gimignano

From the piazza, the Via Sant’ Agata leads down to the church of San Giuseppe, where, under a picturesque arch, we re-enter the older circle of walls by the Via Giovanni Duprè, in which the house is shown where Siena’s great modern sculptor was born.

Perhaps the most characteristic street of the Terzo di Città is the Via del Casato, or more simply the Casato, which, running a winding course, joins the Via di San Pietro with the Campo. This was once the most aristocratic street in Siena, where the nobles and wealthy Noveschi surrounded themselves with armed retainers and gave those sumptuous entertainments that were a feature in the social life of the “soft” city. There are still old palaces on either side; steep vicoli wind and radiate off from it, with sudden glimpses beyond of distant hills and towers. Where the present Palazzo Ugurghieri stands, and down the steep vicoli on either side, was once the palatial castle of the proud old house of the Ugurghieri, who, Lombard or Frank in origin, were descended from the Counts who in the ninth and tenth centuries governed Siena.

Crossing the Campo, we enter the Terzo di San Martino at the Porrione, as the opening of the Via San Martino was called – a point of strategical importance in the furious factions of mediaeval Siena. At the corner of the Via Rinaldini (originally the Chiasso Largo, the street of the silk merchants) is the superb grey Palazzo Todeschini Piccolomini, the Palazzo de’ Papeschi, as it was called, now the Palazzo del Governo, adorned with the arms of the Piccolomini and the Todeschini. It was built for the nephews of Pius II., the sons of Nanni Todeschini, by the Sienese architect, Pietro Paolo Porrini called Il Porrina, and begun in 1469; the Ufficiali sopra l’Ornato, on October 28th of that year, reporting to the Signoria that “the Palace begun by the Respectability of Messer Giacomo and Messer Andrea Piccolomini, will be a marvellous work and a most worthy ornament in your city, according to the intention and design of their Respectability.”141 The stone work, within and without, was for the most part carved by Lorenzo di Mariano. This palace now contains the Archivio di Stato of Siena; to do justice to its multifold interest, a book would be required larger than the present volume. In the Sala della Mostra a number of documents of all kinds are exhibited, illustrating Sienese life and politics from the year 736 downwards, including a whole series of Imperial diplomas from Louis the Pius in 813 to Charles V. in 1536. Here we may read, on the very parchment on which they were written, the letter from the Commune of Florence to that of Siena concerning the massacre of Cesena; the bull of Pius II., with a postscript in his own hand, exhorting the Sienese to admit the nobles to the government; Giovanni Torriani, general of the Dominicans, announcing his intention of sending Frate Girolamo Savonarola to Siena to reform the convent of Santo Spirito; or Cesare Borgia’s ferocious threats of destruction from Pienza.142 There are special series of autographs of famous ladies and of soldiers of fortune, as also of artistic documents, such as the agreement between Frate Melano, Operaio of the Duomo, and Maestro Niccolò Pisano for the work of the pulpit (Sept. 29th, 1266), and the assignment of the tavola of the high altar to Duccio di Buoninsegna (Oct. 9th, 1308). Here, too, are shown the documents of the last days of the once mighty Republic – “Il Governo della Difesa della Libertà Senese ritirato in Montalcino” – down to the surrender of that last stronghold of Sienese liberty. There is, further, a whole collection – of the utmost interest to students of Dante – of documents illustrating the Divina Commedia, with the Will, testamento, of Messer Giovanni Boccaccio of Certaldo.

Even more interesting than these, and absolutely unique of its kind, is the collection of Tavolette dipinte della Biccherna e della Gabella, the painted covers of the Treasury Registers of the Republic of Siena, which “offer a true museum of exquisite paintings, which is likewise a history of national sentiment [del sentimento cittadino], from Don Ugo, monk of San Galgano, seated at his desk of the Biccherna to regulate accounts and taxes with the feudatories, to the allegory of the sufferings endured during the last, heroical siege.”143 The officers of the Biccherna – Camarlingo and four Provveditori – administered the revenues of the State; the officers of the Gabella – Camarlingo and three, afterwards four, Esecutori – were mainly concerned with the collection of taxes. Every six months a fresh set of Provveditori and Esecutori came in, fresh registers were begun, and at the end of the year the retiring Camarlinghi of Biccherna and Gabella (and sometimes the other officials) had the covers of the books of their term of office painted with their arms and those of their colleagues, and with either their portraits or some religious or allegorical device, or with the representation of one of the chief political events of the past year. This lasted until long after the fall of the Republic; but by that time the old book covers had been replaced by regular pictures, but still, to show their origin, marked with the arms of the Camarlinghi and their colleagues. Here I need enumerate only those tavolette or tavole that are more important, historically or artistically. For the registers of the Biccherna in 1258, two years before Montaperti, we have the portrait (by Gilio di Pietro) of Don Ugo the Camarlingo, who was re-elected repeatedly, and whom we have already met in connection with the cession of Montepulciano to the Republic. Later on we frequently find the arms of the Podestà, and also the portrait of the Scrittore, or scribe, who had to make the entries as the Camarlingo dictated. For the Gabella of 1344, when the rule of the Nine was nearing the end of its triumphant course, we have the Government of Siena enthroned over the Lupa, painted by Ambrogio Lorenzetti; for the Biccherna of 1385, after the fall of the Riformatori and the establishment of the new Monte del Popolo, there is a similar allegory by some later follower of the Lorenzetti, in which the citizens, bound together in the white bonds of pure concord, assemble before the Genius of the Commune. Apart from their great historical interest, many of the tavolette of the Quattrocento are little gems of Sienese painting. That of the Biccherna of 1433 represents the Coronation of the Emperor Sigismund; the Biccherna of 1436 gives us a striking St Jerome by an unknown painter; the Gabella of 1440 and 1444, St Peter of Alexandria and St Michael, both ascribed to Giovanni di Paolo. The Tavoletta di Biccherna of 1449 shows the Coronation of Pope Nicholas V.; that of 1451 represents Ghino di Pietro Bellanti washing his hands in the presence of the Blessed Virgin, to manifest his loyalty and the purity of his administration – whereas he was a traitor of the deepest dye who, five years later, was implicated in the plots to betray Siena to Piccinino and the King of Naples, and forced to fly for his life. The Tavoletta di Gabella of 1455, by an unknown artist, refers to the crusading zeal of Pope Calixtus III.; it represents the Annunciation, between St Bernard, as the preacher of the second Crusade, and the Pope himself blessing the youths and maidens of Siena who took part in the processions that he ordered, to pray Heaven for the downfall of the Turk.144 The curious design of the Biccherna of 1457, of the school of Sano di Pietro, is, according to Mr Heywood, “symbolical of the peace made between the Sienese Republic and the Count Jacopo Piccinino.” Both tavolette, of the Biccherna and of the Gabella, of 1460, are concerned with Pius II.; in the one he is crowned by two Cardinals, under the special patronage of the Madonna, while Siena is seen below guarded by her lions of the People (probably a reference to the papal attempt to restore the nobles to the government); in the other, he confers the cardinal’s hat upon his nephew, Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini; Mr Berenson ascribes the one to Il Vecchietta, the other to Francesco di Giorgio Martini. Also by Francesco di Giorgio is the Biccherna cover for 1467, representing the Madonna with Angels protecting Siena in the time of the earthquake, when the people fled from their homes into huts and tents. For the Gabella of 1468, there is a quaint allegory of Peace and War, of uncertain authorship; on the one side citizens pay in their money, and on the other the Camarlingo deals it out to the mercenaries, while genii of Peace and War hover in the air.145 Then follow two exquisite little paintings by Sano di Pietro, the Tavolette di Gabella of 1471 and 1473, respectively representing Wisdom proceeding from God, and the marriage of Lucrezia di Agnolo Malavolti (Messer Agnolo being one of the Esecutori in 1473) to Count Roberto da San Severino, a great Lombard condottiere. In 1474, also Gabella and of doubtful authorship, we have a later version of the old allegory of good government; Liberty, in the black and white of the Commune and holding the balzana, sits between the Camarlingo and the Scrittore, with the legend: “He rules who ministers well.” Until 1497 the pictures that follow all belong to the Gabella. For 1479 is the entry of the allied forces – Sienese, Neapolitans, papalini– into Colle di Val d’Elsa, an episode of the war against Florence in the days of Pope Sixtus IV. and Alfonso of Calabria; while in 1480, that year when the Duke’s intrigues against the liberties of Siena came to a head, the Madonna is seen recommending the city to her Divine Son. Both are ascribed to Francesco di Giorgio, though the latter – a singularly beautiful painting – is attributed by Mr Berenson to Neroccio di Bartolommeo Landi. Specially interesting (though of less artistic importance) is the tavoletta of 1483, which represents the solemn presentation of the keys of Siena to the Madonna delle Grazie in the Duomo, when all the four Monti were reduced to one. The painter has combined in one representation two of the great events of that year, which are thus described by Allegretto Allegretti, who in the previous August had himself been admitted to the Council of the People: —

“On Saturday, March 22nd, there was held a council of all the government, and there were 256 councillors present, in which a general resolution was brought forward on the motion of Messer Bartolommeo Sozzini, who was Captain of the People, concerning the well-being of the city and to make of all the government one Monte. It was supported by many persons, and carried by 245 white beans to 11 black. Afterwards a resolution was carried to give a hundred lire in alms to churches, for prayers to God. And Messer Andrea Piccolomini moved that every year for Holy Mary of March a palio should be run of the value of 50 florins. The beans were all white. He further moved that all the Council should accompany the Signori to the Duomo. And at the altar of the Madonna of the Duomo, together with the Cardinal Malfetta, they offered up prayers and rendered thanks, and the Te Deum Laudamus was sung; after which the Cardinal made one of his bishops attach to the said Madonna delle Grazie an indulgence of seven years and seven periods of forty days; and in the evening salvos were fired and bells rang a gloria.”146

This was after the exclusion of the Noveschi from the government, but before their expulsion from the city – after which latter event the scene represented in the tavoletta took place: —

“On the 24th day of August the old Signoria and the new, with the officers and orders of the city and with the greater part of the People, went to the Duomo and heard the High Mass, together with the Cardinal of Siena, the nephew of Pope Pius of the House of the Piccolomini. And when Mass had been said, Frate Mariano da Genazzano, of the Hermit Order of St Augustine, made a fine sermon. And when the sermon was ended, the Signoria, Cardinal, canons, and all the clergy and all the People went to the altar of the Madonna. After certain prayers, the Prior of the Signori, in the name of the magnificent Commune of Siena, offered up the keys of the City of Siena upon the altar of the said Madonna. Lorenzo d’Antonio di Ser Lorenzo was the old Captain of the People, and Andrea di Sano Batteloro was Prior, and Crescenzio di Pietro di Goro the new Captain. Then the Te Deum Laudamus was sung; and of all these things the deed was drawn up by Ser Giovanni Danielli. The Cardinal took the keys as Procurator, and in the name of Our Lady gave them into the hand of the Prior of the Signori, recommending to him the city, that he should hold and govern it in the name of Our Lady, and that he should make no other contract concerning it. Then the Prior gave to each Gonfaloniere his keys.”147

Perhaps in the two following years, stormy and blood-stained for Siena, it was not thought safe to venture upon politics in painting; at least the tavolette of 1484 and 1485, by Guidoccio Cozzarelli, represent purely religious scenes – the Presentation of Mary in the Temple and the Sacrifice of Isaac. Then in 1487 we have an allegory (ascribed by Mr Berenson to Fungai) of the triumphant return of the Noveschi – the Sienese ship of State guided into harbour by the Madonna herself. For the Gabella of 1489 we have another political religious allegory, the officials beseeching the Madonna and Child to visit their city once more. The Tavoletta di Biccherna of 1497 represents a band of horsemen entering Siena – probably either the escort of the French ambassador or (I would suggest) the provvisionati who were hired by the Balìa in that year to support the prepotency of the Monte de’ Nove. The Tavoletta di Gabella of 1499 (perhaps by Guidoccio Cozzarelli) represents St Catherine receiving the Stigmata, and reflects the suddenly revived cult of her which was curiously noticeable – as a kind of protest against the corruption of the Curia – during the jubilee of the following year. For the Gabella of 1526 we have the splendid victory of Camollia, ascribed to Giovanni di Lorenzo Cini. For 1542 – painted for the Camarlingo di Gabella, Conte del Rondina – is an allegory of the reforms attempted by Granvelle and Sfondrato. The Sienese ship of State is borne safely to port over perilous seas by a great sail (gran vela), with a leafless tree (sfrondato) for mast, while her predecessor has been shattered to pieces upon the rocks.148 The Tavola di Biccherna of 1548 is a beautiful Madonna of the school of Beccafumi. Then come four pictures of the heroic last days of the Republic, all four ascribed to Giorgio di Giovanni; for both Biccherna and Gabella of 1552, the destruction of the Citadel that Don Diego had built; for the Biccherna of 1553, the defence of Montalcino; for 1555, the last year of the free Republic, an allegory of the siege – St Paul with Siena in the background and the inscription: “All, who wish to live justly, suffer persecution.” The Medicean arms appear in a tavoletta of 1558; after which, in 1559, the Biccherna gives us the treaty of Câteau Cambresis, the Gabella the surrender of Montalcino; and in the Tavola di Biccherna of 1561 we see Cosimo de’ Medici making his entry into Siena. After this, the note is changed. We have a few tavole dealing with the efforts of Christendom to roll back the Turk (1566, 1568, 1571), and with such events of universal interest as the Reform of the Calendar or the fall of Ferrara; but, for the most part, the Camarlinghi under the new regime contented themselves with recording the domestic affairs of their Medicean masters in the spirit of a Court chronicle, or adding their tribute to the devotion to the Madonna of Provenzano.

There are also some excellent miniature paintings shown here, especially by Sano di Pietro in the Statutes of the Arte di Mercanzia, 1472, and by Niccolò di Ser Sozzo Tegliacci representing the Assumption, 1336, one of the finest miniatures of the fourteenth century.

Beyond the palace is the Piazza Piccolomini, with the Loggia del Papa that Antonio Federighi built for Pius II. in 1462, inscribed “Pius II., Supreme Pontiff, to his Kinsmen the Piccolomini” – a kind of architectural glorification of discriminating nepotism. The church of San Martino, in its present form, dates from the latter part of the Cinquecento. On the right of the entrance is the votive picture of the Battle of Camollia, commissioned by the Balìa in honour of the Immaculate Conception in 1526, and painted by Giovanni di Lorenzo Cini. While the battle is raging outside the walls, Heaven opens and the Madonna appears with Angels, to protect her chosen city from papal aggression. Over the third altar on the left is a poetically conceived Nativity by Beccafumi, unfortunately much darkened, painted about 1523, with what Vasari calls un ballo di Angeli bellissimo– exquisite Angels clustering round the Divine Child, or circling ecstatically round the Mystical Dove that hovers above the ruins of the pagan world. The marble framework of the altar is by Il Marrina. The church contains also a Circumcision by Guido Reni. There was a great burning of vanities here in the piazza on June 1st, 1488, after a sermon by Fra Bernardino da Asti; false hair, dice, cards, masks and the like were heaped together, with a figure of a devil on the top, and the whole fired.

The Via di Salicotto – or more simply styled Salicotto – is the headquarters of the Contrada della Torre, the energetic rivals of the Oca. The tall ruined houses opposite the Palazzo Pubblico, the narrow viali with over-arching masonry, give it a most picturesque appearance. Here, past where the Via de’ Malcontenti runs into the Mercato, is the little church of San Giacomo, now the oratory of the Contrada. It was built in 1531, in commemoration of the great victory over the papal forces in 1526, and contains a famous miraculous picture of the Immaculate Conception – the Madonna between St James and St Christopher – painted in 1545 in honour of the same event by Giovanni di Lorenzo Cini, who was also one of the operai presiding over the construction of the oratory, and had himself fought in the republican ranks on the day of battle.149 Further on are the church and convent of San Girolamo – at present in the hands of the Sisters of Charity. In a niche in the cloister is a frescoed Assumption by Fungai. There are some good pictures in the church and sacristy, including a Madonna by Matteo di Giovanni, a St Jerome by Girolamo del Pacchia, and a Coronation of the Madonna by Sano di Pietro.

The church of the Servites, or of the Santissima Concezione, beyond the original circuit of walls, is a good early Renaissance building, raised between 1471 and 1528. From its platform, especially at sunset, there is a fine view of Siena. In the right aisle are: the much venerated Vergine del Bordone, in the Byzantine style, painted in 1261 by a certain Coppo di Marcovaldo; the Massacre of the Innocents, by Matteo di Giovanni – quieter and less violent, but also less dramatic and no more convincing than his other representations of this subject – with above it the Madonna and Child with Angels, and the two donors presented by their patron saints; and, up above Matteo’s picture, a little Nativity, by Taddeo di Bartolo. In the left aisle is the Madonna del Belvedere, painted by Giacomo di Mino del Pellicciaio in 1363, his best work; the figures on either side, St Joseph with the Divine Child holding a crown of thorns, the Magdalene with the baby Baptist, are ascribed by Mr Berenson to Fungai. By Fungai too is the Coronation of the Madonna on the high altar. In the second chapels, to right and left of the choir, are the remains, much restored, of frescoes ascribed to Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti; the Massacre of the Innocents and St Agnes, the Dance of the Daughter of Herodias and the Resurrection of St John – these latter somewhat recalling Giotto’s work in Santa Croce. Over the sacristy door is the Madonna del Popolo, a lovely little picture by Lippo Memmi. In the sacristy is the Madonna del Manto, Our Lady taking the people of Siena under her protection, by Giovanni di Pietro, 1436, an otherwise almost unknown master. The Oratory of the Santissima Trinità, beyond the Servites, contains a Madonna by Neroccio Landi.

To the left of San Girolamo is the Fonte San Maurizio, at the place, just outside the older circuit of walls, where the horse and cattle markets were held before the present fourteenth century walls were built. The arch over the beginning of the Via Ricasoli, with a seventeenth century fresco, representing the Blessed Trinity with St Maurice and St Jerome, marks the place of the old gate. The Via Romana runs out hence to the Porta Romana. On the left is a somewhat ruined palace, in the style of the Florentine Quattrocento, now known as the Rifugio, built about 1474, probably by Giuliano da Maiano, for the Abbot and monks of San Galgano, whose device of the sword stuck fast in the rock is seen still on the exterior. There is a curious petition of theirs to the Signoria, dated May 31st, 1474, in which they explain that they have begun this palace, “having a desire to convert their little income to the honour and ornament of your City, and in some part to the perpetual utility of that Abbey of yours,” and that, as times are bad, they want to be exempted from the Gabella, and to have further aid from the State.150 Further on is the great Augustinian convent of the Santuccio, in the church of which the head of San Galgano is preserved in a richly decorated reliquary. The Porta Romana, formerly the Porta Nuova, was built early in the fourteenth century by Agostino di Giovanni and Agnolo di Ventura; the frescoed Coronation of the Madonna is by Taddeo di Bartolo and Sano di Pietro; the distich in her honour was written later by Niccolò Borghesi. It is thus the same gate through which Enea Piccolomini led the French deliverers in 1552, and that witnessed these French march out in 1555, with the long line of republican exiles, and the triumphant entry of the Marchese di Marignano. A short way beyond the gate is the church of Sta. Maria degli Angioli, a building of the latter part of the Quattrocento; the altar-piece (in a rich frame by Antonio Barili), the Madonna and Child with four Saints, a lunette and predella, is signed and dated 1502, by Raffaello di Carlo, a Florentine painter, by whom there are also works in the Palazzo Corsini and Santo Spirito at Florence. In the sacristy is a standard painted with an Assumption by Riccio.

The other south-eastern gate, the Porta Pispini, has the remains of a frescoed Nativity by Bazzi. According to the legend, the name Pispini is derived from “Il Santo viene,” “the Saint cometh,” – the cry raised by the people when the relics of St Ansanus were brought to the city. Outside the gate, a little to the left, is the modernised remnant of one of the bastions erected by Baldassare Peruzzi, as architect to the Republic.

Santo Spirito, in the Via Pispini, is the chief church of the Dominicans in Siena, and its convent was one of those reformed by Savonarola. It was built about the year 1498; the cupola was designed by Giacomo Cozzarelli and built for Pandolfo Petrucci in 1508, the façade designed in 1519 by Peruzzi for Girolamo Piccolomini, Bishop of Pienza. The first chapel on the left, the Borghesi Chapel, has a glorified Madonna worshipped by St Francis and St Catherine, with child angels, and two beautiful little winged genii standing at the tomb; it is the finest of all Matteo Balducci’s works, thoroughly Umbrian in feeling. On the right is the Cappella degli Spagnuoli, decorated with frescoes (circa 1530), painted in the days of the first Spanish occupation of Siena by Bazzi; the Madonna investing St Alphonso with the episcopal robes, in the presence of two radiantly beautiful virgin martyrs and Angels; St James, represented as a Spanish knight in full armour, superbly mounted, slaying Saracens; St Thomas and St Michael, St Sebastian and St Antony. The single figures are of the utmost beauty. The large terra-cotta group is by Ambrogio della Robbia. The statues of St Vincent Ferrer and St Catherine (the two followers of St Dominic who were found on opposite sides in the schism), in the second chapels, are ascribed to Giacomo Cozzarelli. The Coronation of the Madonna, over the third altar on the left, is by Girolamo del Pacchia. The Crucifixion on the entrance wall is ascribed to Sano di Pietro. There is a Coronation by Beccafumi in the sacristy, and in the cloisters a frescoed Crucifixion painted by Fra Bartolommeo’s pupil, Fra Paolino da Pistoia.

The church of San Giorgio in the Via Ricasoli is, in its present form, a work of the eighteenth century. But it occupies the site of a most ancient church, which was rebuilt in honour of the Battle of Montaperti; its curious campanile, best seen from below the walls, still dates from 1260, and its windows are supposed to represent the different companies of the Sienese who took part in the battle. Near the house of the liberal theological thinkers of the Cinquecento, Lelio and Fausto Sozzini (the founders of the Socinians), which was afterwards a palace of the Malavolti, the Via di Follonica leads to the church of San Giovanni Battista in Pantaneto, which possesses a terra-cotta statue of the Baptist, ascribed to Giacomo Cozzarelli, and several pictures of scenes from his life by Rutilio Manetti. Lower down to the right is one of Siena’s characteristic mediaeval fountains, the Fonte di Follonica, probably constructed in the early years of the thirteenth century. Opposite the Palazzo del Governo, is the Studio, the famous and still flourishing University of Siena. It contains a characteristically Sienese sepulchral monument of the later Trecento, representing the professor, Niccolò Aringhieri, lecturing to his pupils. In the Via Sallustio Bandini is the graceful brick palace that Francesco di Giorgio built for Messer Sallustio, the father of Mario and Francesco, and ancestor of the celebrated man of science. On the left are the remains of one of the castellacce, or private fortresses, of the thirteenth century.