The Story of Siena and San Gimignano

by Edmund G. Gardner

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