Memmi, painted in 1317 in imitation of the work his brother-in-law had just completed in Siena, representing the Blessed Virgin and her Son enthroned and surrounded by the celestial court of Saints and Angels, while Messer Nello di Mino Tolomei of Siena, podestà and captain of the Commune and People of San Gimignano, kneels at her feet under the patronage of St Nicholas. In his rhymed chronicle, Fra Matteo deals somewhat hardly with this dignified magistrate, calling him the ruin of the town, disfacimento di San Gimignano, accusing him of stirring up the people. The fresco was restored by Benozzo Gozzoli in 1467, who painted the four saints at the sides.
The Pinacoteca, on the third floor of the Palace, contains some excellent works. The more important are the following:—A triptych by Taddeo di Bartolo, the Madonna and Child with Saints, the Annunciation, Christ blessing with St Peter and St Paul above; the Madonna and Child, with the Baptist and St Francis, St Gregory and Santa Fina (the latter very sweet and golden-haired, with her flowers), a good Florentine work of the school of Benozzo Gozzoli; St Bartholomew with scenes from his martyrdom, by Lorenzo di Niccolò of Florence, dated 1401; two little panels with four miracles of Santa Fina, probably by the last-named painter; St Geminianus enthroned with a model of the town, with eight scenes of his miracles, including his appearance on the walls of San Gimignano to drive back Attila, by Taddeo di Bartolo; a triptych, by an unknown painter of the Quattrocento, representing St Julian with St Antony and St Martin, on either side of which are little pictures of Santa Fina and St Gregory, perhaps by Lorenzo di Niccolò; a Madonna and Child with two Saints (restored), by Pier Francesco Fiorentino; two excellent tondi by Sebastiano Mainardi. At the end of the room are the two chief treasures of the collection. The Madonna alone in a glory of Cherubs, with a pope and an abbot kneeling in adoration in a beautiful landscape, is one of the finest of Pinturicchio’s works, in colour and in expression; it was painted for the convent of the Olivetani outside the Porta San Giovanni. On either side of it are two tondi representing the Annunciation, in beautiful old frames; these were commissioned by the Commune in 1482, and, though in colour and form they curiously approach Botticelli, appear to be early works of Filippino Lippi. M. Paul Bourget especially admires the Gabriel, “un Ange annonciateur au profil douloureusement extatique, aux mains blanches et fines dans leur longueur.” There is also an altar-piece by Fra Paolino da Pistoia, which may possibly have been painted by him from a design of Fra Bartolommeo’s, but is very poor in execution. There are several frescoes ascribed to Pier Francesco Fiorentino in other rooms of the Palace.
Opposite the Collegiata is the old Palazzo del Podestà, where that magistrate resided until San Gimignano surrendered to Florence. It was built in the thirteenth and enlarged early in the fourteenth century. There is some antique iron work, including a fine fanale, on the façade, and in the Loggia are the remains of a fresco painted by Bazzi in 1513. Its tall tower, only slightly lower than that of the Torre del Comune, originally called the Rognosa and, after 1407, the Torre dell’ Orologio, marked the limit to which noble citizens might build their private towers. When at nightfall its bell, those of the Pieve and the more sonorous one of the Commune answer each other, the Sangimignanesi assure me that the sound can be heard in Florence. The tower near it is that of the Savorelli.
Adjacent to the Piazza Vittorio Emanuele is the Piazza Cavour, formerly called the Piazza della Cisterna from the old octagonal well of 1273 that still adorns it. On the left is the imposing Torre Pratellesi, originally the tower of the Palazzo Paltoncini in which the Podestà occasionally held his court in the first half of the thirteenth century. Opposite to it, is the tasteful little Gothic brick Palazzo Friani, a restored structure of the fourteenth century. Here is the tall, grass-grown Torre Cinatti, one of the most characteristic of the noble towers of the town. The two dismantled towers on the right are the remains of the palace of the Ardinghelli, in which the councils of the Commune met occasionally in the thirteenth century. At the corner of the Piazza is the Portone de’ Beccie Cugnanesi, or Arco dei Talei, of the original circuit of walls before the end of the twelfth century, to the right of which is the picturesque Vicolo de’ Becci, ending under a massive arch with one of those quaintly picturesque views that make the town an artistic delight at every turn.
Between the Via San Matteo and the Piazza dell’ Erbe are remains of a large palace, with two very tall twin towers. This appears to have been the Palazzo Salvucci,[191] the towers still showing traces of the fires kindled round them by the vengeful Ardinghelli. Opposite them, in the Via San Matteo, is the Torre Pettini. Thence we pass under a massive double arch, the Arco della Cancelleria or Portone di San Matteo, of the first circuit of walls. On our right are the Library and small Dante Museum, the latter inaugurated on the sixth centenary of Dante’s embassy to the town. A little further on, the church of San Bartolo has a picturesque façade of the eleventh century. Beyond is the great palace tower of the Pesciolini (according to a quite unhistorical tradition once the residence of Desiderio, King of the Lombards), in the style of the fourteenth century. The basement of what was once a palace, on the left, has decorative frescoes of the school of Poccetti. At the Porta San Matteo, we turn down the little lane within the walls to the Piazza Sant’ Agostino.
The church of Sant’ Agostino was built between 1280 and 1299. It was consecrated by the Cardinal Matteo d’Acquasparta—a short while before that very unsatisfactory prelate’s attempt to make peace in Florence while Dante sat in the priorate. On the right of the principal entrance is the chapel of San Bartolo, constructed in 1494 by order of the Commune. The tomb itself is the work of Benedetto da Maiano and his pupils, but hardly equal to the one that Benedetto had made for Fina. The tondo of the Madonna and Child, in which the Mother is guiding the Infant’s little hand to bless the people, is most exquisite, and probably it (with, perhaps, the three theological virtues) is the only part executed by the master himself. The three Saints on the wall, the four Doctors on the ceiling were painted by Sebastiano Mainardi. The picture over the next altar, of the same year 1494, the Madonna and Child, with many Saints and a tiny little Dominican friar as donor, is one of the best works of Pier Francesco Fiorentino. The frescoed Pietà above is ascribed to Vincenzo Tamagni. Then comes one of those curious symbolical representations of the Passion, which Don Lorenzo and Fra Angelico had made traditional. The second altar, dedicated to St Nicholas of Tolentino, has frescoes of 1529 by Vincenzo Tamagni, representing the Madonna and Child with Angels, St Nicholas of Tolentino and St Rock, St Antony the abbot and St Paul the first hermit. At the first altar on the left, the chapel of the Crocifisso, are more frescoes by Tamagni; kneeling opposite the Magdalene at the foot of the Cross is St Clare of Montefalco, holding in her hand her heart marked with the signs of the Passion; the St Margaret on the left is a thoroughly Raffaelesque figure, while the Madonna and St John are more like Perugino at his weakest. Then comes St Sebastian taking the people of San Gimignano under his protection in the time of pestilence, an admirable fresco by Benozzo Gozzoli; around the Apollo of Christian legend gather the people of the town in prayer; in spite of Christ and Mary, the Eternal Father and the Angels of wrath are hurling down the arrows of pestilence, but these are broken into pieces by other Angels at Sebastian’s intercession. Over the third altar is the Madonna delle Grazie with St Michael, originally a fresco by Lippo Memmi, but completely repainted and modernised.