_The Duomo and the Baptistery_
Rising majestically above Siena, crowned with the mosaic of the
Coronation of the Blessed Virgin in Paradise, as though to make her seem
still floating in air over the city that had chosen her for Queen, is
the vast Duomo. Tradition has it that a temple of Minerva once stood
upon this hill, and that upon its ruins was built the first fane to
_Maria Assunta_, Our Lady of the Assumption.
Some such building had existed from the end of the tenth century; but
the present "tiger-striped cathedral," the most truly Gothic of all
ecclesiastical buildings in Tuscany, belongs for the most part to the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The hexagonal cupola was finished
in 1264, four years after Montaperti and the year before Dante's birth.
The Campanile, with its curious turrets at the angles, was built in the
following century. But the original building did not satisfy the Nine
and the turbulent, prosperous citizens that they ruled. While prolonging
the Duomo Vecchio, as it was called, to the east up to the present
Baptistery (in those very years, between 1317 and 1321, in which Dante
was at Ravenna, finishing his _Paradiso_), defects were discovered in
the architecture; and in February 1322 (1321 in the old Sienese style)
Lorenzo Maitani, with four other masters, proposed to the General
Council of the Campana that a new cathedral should be erected: "we
advise that, to the honour of God and of the Blessed Virgin Mary, His
Most Holy Mother--who ever was, is, and will be in time to come, the
Head of this city of Siena--there be begun and made a beauteous, great
and magnificent church, which shall be well-proportioned in length,
height, and breadth, and in all measures which pertain to a beauteous
church, and with all splendid ornaments which pertain to and befit so
great, so honourable and beauteous a church; to the end that our Lord
Jesus Christ and His most holy Mother, and His most high celestial
court, in that church may be blessed and glorified in hymns, and the
said Commune of Siena be ever protected by them from adversity and be
honoured perpetually."[76] It was decided that the old Duomo should be
preserved; but merely as the transept of this new _ecclesia pulchra,
magna et magnifica_; and in December 1339 the new nave was begun, the
architect Pietro di Lando, who was then working for King Robert of
Naples, being summoned back to Siena to superintend, as "a man of great
subtlety and invention." He was succeeded by Giovanni di Agostino; but
the pestilence of 1348, followed by the fall of the Nine in 1355, caused
the work to be abandoned. The Sienese turned back to their Duomo Vecchio
with renewed vigour, and, in the early years of the fifteenth century,
the great work was practically completed--before Brunelleschi had
crowned the rival Cathedral of Florence with his mighty dome.
Going up the Via di Monna Agnese, or climbing the steps from the
Baptistery, we pass under a richly-worked doorway, in the tympanum of
which the Redeemer is enthroned with Angels. This would have been a door
at the end of the right aisle. As it is, it leads us into a spacious
piazza, with the Duomo, as at
[Illustration: THE DUOMO]
present constructed, on our right. On the left is the huge unfinished
façade of the abandoned Duomo of Pietro di Lando and Giovanni di
Agostino, with what would have been the principal entrance from the Via
di Città. The tricuspidate façade of the present cathedral, in black,
white and red marble, covered with statuary, was mainly constructed in
the last two decades of the thirteenth century under the superintendence
of Giovanni di Niccolò Pisano; but all the chief sculptors of the
Sienese school have worked upon it, down to the latter part of the
fifteenth century. The majority of the statues that we now see are
modern copies of the originals, and almost the whole has been completely
restored. The mosaics in the _cuspidi_ are modern Venetian work, from
the designs of Mussini and Franchi. Upon the platform is represented in
_graffito_ the Parable of the Publican and the Pharisee; similarly, at
the three doors, are three scenes from the administration of Holy
Orders. These were originally executed in the sixteenth century, but
have been restored and altered. Before entering the sacred building, the
tablet should be noticed, set into the wall of the Vescovado, the
Archbishop's palace on the left: "Hoc est sepulcrum magistri Ioannis
quondam magistri Nicolai et de eius eredibus." It is the tombstone of
Giovanni Pisano himself, who was buried in the cloister of the Canons,
between the Duomo and the Vescovado.
The peculiar beauty of the interior of the Duomo is due to the fact that
we have Gothic architecture, combined with decoration that is almost
entirely in the style and taste of the fifteenth century. Gothic
austerity is tempered here with the grace and fascination of the early
Renaissance. The terra-cotta busts of the Popes in the cornice along the
nave and choir belong to the close of the fifteenth and the beginning of
the sixteenth centuries. They make a strangely impressive series, these
crowned Vicars of Christ, who Himself is seen in the midst of them,
immediately under the eastern window. They stretch from Peter in a
continuous chronological line round the church, to Lucius III., who sat
on the Throne of the Fisherman from 1181 to 1185, succeeding to
Alexander III., when our Henry II. reigned in England. They are solemn
and dignified--the ideal Pontiffs of the closing chapter of Dante's _De
Monarchia_, "who in accordance with things revealed should lead the
human race to eternal life." But there is naturally no attempt or
thought of portraiture: some of Hildebrand's infamous predecessors are
conceived and represented in the same spirit as he who said: "I have
loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore, I die in exile." Below them
are similar busts of Roman Emperors, the supreme temporal rulers of the
world in Dante's dual scheme, "who in accordance with the teachings of
philosophy should direct the human race to temporal felicity."
The famous pavement of the Duomo--a thing unique of its kind--might well
have paved the first terrace of Dante's Mountain of Purgation. The
tradition that this work was originally designed by Duccio (from which
it would follow that Dante himself may have seen its first beginnings)
is now almost entirely rejected. Documentary evidence proves that it was
not begun until the year 1369, shortly after the resumption of work upon
the Duomo Vecchio. The greater part of it was laid down after Giovanni
da Spoleto[77] in 1396 had begun publicly to expound the _Divina
Commedia_ in the Studio of Siena, and we can readily imagine that the
men under whose superintendence it was done had in their minds those
superb _terzine_ in which the divine poet describes the figured scenes
over which his feet passed to meet that _creatura bella_, the Angel of
Humility, whose face was like the morning star.[78] With one solitary
exception--the rout of the Assyrians after the death of Holofernes--the
subjects shown here are not the same as those on Dante's _duro
pavimento_. Instead of the examples of the punishment of pride, we have
here a series of scenes which can hardly be said to be dominated by one
idea, but which in the main (a few scenes standing apart, unconnected
with the general scheme), through symbol, type and prophecy, lead up to
the Sacrifice of Isaac before the High Altar, as mystically representing
the Atonement of Calvary, renewed daily in the Sacrifice of the Mass. In
the earliest of these _commessi_ and _graffiti_, white and black marbles
alone are used; later, coloured marbles are employed as well, both in
shading and in the decorative portions. Executed at various dates, for
the most part in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, they have been
frequently altered and restored, while in some instances modern copies
have been substituted for the originals. Save in the season of the feast
of the Assumption, the central portions are kept covered.
The pavement of the nave and aisles is a preparation, in some sort, for
the rest. In the nave is first Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus,
"Contemporaneus Moysi," with two disciples--symbolical of the mystical
wisdom of the Ancients, "when sages looked to Egypt for their lore." It
was executed in 1488 from the designs of Giovanni di Stefano. Next comes
Siena herself, represented by the _Lupa_ suckling the Twins, surrounded
with the heraldic beasts of the allied cities; this was originally
executed in 1373, and (unlike the rest of the pavement) in mosaic, but
the present piece is a modern copy. She is followed--in token of what
her chroniclers call her perpetual fidelity to the Caesarian
Monarchy--by a wheel with the Imperial Eagle in the centre, of the same
year. Then follow two allegories of human life, under the sway of
Fortune, "who hath the goods of the world so in her clutch." The first
is the so-called _Storia della Fortuna_, designed by Pinturicchio in
1505.[79] Fortune has landed ten of her subjects on the shore of a
solitary island mountain, the paths of which are stony, and where
reptiles lurk and crawl. Some run steadfastly on to seek wisdom; one
sinks down to rest by the way, wearied already of the quest; one gazes
longingly back, another shakes his fist at his mistress. "But she is
blessed and heareth not that," as Dante has it, as she spreads her sail
to catch the breeze, and steps off again into her storm-shattered bark
to fetch new votaries. Above all change and alien influence, in the
flowery garden that crowns the mountain like Dante's Earthly Paradise,
sits Wisdom enthroned, with palm and book; on her right Socrates
receives the palm, on her left Crates is casting jewels into the sea;
the obvious meaning being that wisdom can be reached only by pursuit of
knowledge and contempt of riches. The second, an allegory of ambition, a
modern copy of a work originally executed in 1372, shows a crowned king
enthroned on the summit of Fortune's wheel; clinging desperately to the
sides of the wheel are men struggling up to take his place or falling
from it, while in the corners the sages of antiquity moralise upon the
scene. On the pavement of the aisles are the ten Sibyls, inspired
prophetesses of the Incarnation and Redemption among the pagans and
gentiles. They were laid down in 1482 and 1483, under the rectorship of
Alberto Aringhieri, to whose care so much of the beautiful decoration of
the Duomo is due; but they have all been restored. In the right aisle we
see the Delphic Sibyl, designed and executed by Giuliano di Biagio and
Vito di Marco; the Cumaean Sibyl, ascribed to Luigi di Ruggiero and
Vito di Marco;[80] the Cuman Sibyl, with the golden bough and the famous
Virgilian prophecy, designed and executed by Giovanni di Stefano; the
Erythraean Sibyl, designed and executed, also signed, by Antonio
Federighi; the Persian Sibyl, which appears to be mainly the work of
Urbano da Cortona. In the left aisle are: the Libyan Sibyl, designed by
Guidoccio Cozzarelli; the Hellespontine Sibyl, designed by Neroccio di
Bartolommeo Landi;[81] the Phrygian Sibyl, probably, like her Cimmerian
sister, designed and executed by Luigi di Ruggiero and Vito di Marco;
the Samian Sibyl, designed by Matteo di Giovanni and with his signature;
the Albunean Sibyl, designed by Benvenuto di Giovanni.[82] These ten
figures are among the most characteristic products of Sienese art of the
Quattrocento.
On the pavement of the right transept we have the Seven Ages of Man, a
modern copy of what was designed and executed by Antonio Federighi in
1475; the story of Jephthah, by Bastiano di Francesco, between 1481 and
1485; the Death of Absalom, by Pietro del Minella, 1447; and the Emperor
Sigismund enthroned, designed by Domenico di Bartolo in 1434. This last
is peculiarly interesting as being totally different in character from
any other of the series, the work of a singularly striking and certainly
the most isolated painter of the Sienese school. We have in all that
Domenico does a touch of Florentine science and realism. In the left
transept are the Expulsion of Herod, with some spirited fighting in
superb Renaissance armour, designed by Benvenuto di Giovanni in 1484 or
1485, with a beautiful frieze of winged lions by Bastiano di Francesco;
the Massacre of the Innocents, designed by Matteo di Giovanni in 1481,
with a frieze of children, bacchanals, centaurs and amazons, showing how
Matteo felt the spirit of the Renaissance more fully than any other
Sienese painter of his day; the story of Judith, said to have been
designed either by Urbano da Cortona or Matteo di Giovanni, and executed
by Federighi in 1473. These three scenes have been completely restored.
The raised platform in front of the choir shows some of the earliest of
these _graffiti_, laid down between 1423 and 1426, much damaged and
restored; David as the Psalmist and David slaying Goliath are by
Domenico di Niccolò del Coro, whose work we have seen in the chapel of
the Signoria; the story of Joshua and the victory of Samson are by Paolo
di Martino. In the sixteenth century the arrangement of the choir was
altered, the high altar being removed from under the cupola to its
present position. Beccafumi then set to work to design the _graffiti_
for the pavement in accordance with this new arrangement. His work,
roughly speaking, runs from 1518 to 1546. It comprises the story of
Elijah in the hexagonal space below the cupola; the story of Moses
between this and the platform; and, before the high altar itself, the
Sacrifice of Abraham, with Adam and Eve, Abel, Melchizedek and other
scenes from the Old Testament, inclosed by a frieze representing the
Children of Israel going to seek the Promised Land. In recent years the
Elijah series has been completed from designs by Alessandro Franchi. Mr
Cust remarks that Beccafumi, save in his earlier scenes, discards the
colours that Pinturicchio had used, and "confines himself almost
entirely to low tones of colour, which shade from one into the other;
and produces his effects by a species of _chiaroscuro_. Instead of
outlining each piece, or figure, in a single colour, he frequently uses,
on the same subject, white and two or three different shades of
pale-coloured grey marble."[83]
Just within the great doorway are the sepulchral stones of two of the
Sienese nobles who fell at Montaperti: Giovanni Ugurghieri and Andrea
Beccarini. The delicately worked Corinthian columns supporting the
tribune, the bas-reliefs (by Urbano da Cortona) round their pedestals
representing scenes from the life of the Blessed Virgin, are of 1483.
The stained-glass window over the portal, representing the Last Supper,
was designed by Raphael's famous pupil, Perino del Vaga, and executed by
Pastorino Pastorini in 1549. The basins for Holy Water--perhaps the most
beautiful things of their kind in existence--are by Antonio Federighi;
the pedestal of the one on the right is supposed to be a real antique
from an altar dedicated to Neptune. Near the side-doors are statues of
two of Siena's seven popes; Paul V. (Camillo Borghesi), who pontificated
from 1605 to 1621, noted for his quarrel with Venice and for his
extravagant ultramontanism; Marcellus II. (Marcello Cervini), a saintly
man who held the papacy for a few weeks in 1555, and to whose memory
Palestrina dedicated his famous Mass.
At the end of the right aisle, over the door of the Campanile, is the
tomb of Tommaso Piccolomini, Bishop of Pienza, who died in 1483, by
Neroccio; below it, three on each side, are bas-reliefs by Urbano da
Cortona, representing scenes from the lives of the Madonna and her
parents; that of Joachim among the shepherds is full of pastoral charm.
The _Cappella del Voto_, in the right transept, glowing with lapislazuli
and gold, was built in 1661 by Cardinal Fabio Chigi, to enshrine the
miraculous Madonna--the _Madonna delle Grazie_--to which the Sienese had
paid their vows in the days of Montaperti, and which is still credited
with wonderful powers. The superbly modelled Magdalene and Jerome, by
Bernini, the great Roman sculptor of the seventeenth century, are
strongly characteristic of that master's exaggerated and emotional, but
undeniably powerful style. Further on in the transept, Siena's first and
latest pope face each other; Alexander III., the Orlando Bandinelli, so
frequently mentioned, and Alexander VII., the above-named Fabio Chigi,
who reigned from 1665 to 1667, a good, easy man, who loved letters, and
of whom the Venetian envoy wrote that "he had merely the name of a pope,
not the substantial power of the papacy." In the Chapel of the Blessed
Sacrament, let into the wall, are reliefs of St Paul and the four
Evangelists, by Giovanni da Imola and Giovanni di Turino.
Opposite the _Cappella del Voto_ is the Chapel of the Baptist in the
left transept. It contains, in a richly worked reliquary, what is
supposed to be one of the arms of the Baptist himself, which Pius II.
presented to Siena in 1464. The chapel was built by Giovanni di Stefano,
the external marble decorations being by Lorenzo di Mariano. Of the two
pedestals that support the marble columns at the entrance, the one on
the right is a genuine antique, which Antonio Federighi bought in
exchange for a pair of oxen, and the one on the left is his own
imitation of it.[84] Within, the presiding genius of the place is
Donatello's St John in bronze, one of the master's latest works, full of
dramatic expression and the same spirit of austere prophecy that we
found in the Magdalene of the Florentine Baptistery. The marble statues
of St Ansanus and St Catherine of Alexandria are by Giovanni di Stefano
and Neroccio respectively; the latter, assigned to the sculptor in 1487,
was left unfinished at his death. The bas-reliefs of the
Font--representing scenes from Genesis, and two of the labours of
Hercules--are fine and characteristic works of the school of Giacomo
della Quercia, and should perhaps be ascribed to Antonio Federighi. The
eight frescoes were originally executed by Pinturicchio and his pupils,
between 1501 and 1504, for Alberto Aringhieri. On the left and right of
the entrance, by Pinturicchio himself, we see Alberto in youth and age;
first as a young knight keeping vigil, then advanced in years, kneeling
in prayer, in the dress of a knight of Rhodes; they are full of charm,
especially the first, in its harmonies of grey and red, the highest
expression of Sienese chivalry:--
"Unfathomable thoughts with him remain
Of that great bond he may no more eschew,
Nor can he say, 'I'll hide me from this chain.'"[85]
The fresco opposite, representing the Birth of the Precursor, is also
from Pinturicchio's hand. Appropriately placed above the two portraits
of Alberto are the Vigil of St John and his Preaching in the Wilderness;
they are very naive and charming, with odd formal trees and landscape
against the gold background, and are ascribed by Mr Berenson to
Baldassare Peruzzi, of whom there is documentary evidence that he worked
here in 1501; they would thus be very early works of his, of the same
period as they are in the same style as the little Madonna in the
Accademia. These four frescoes have been repainted. The three that
remain have been entirely replaced by later work; the Baptism of Christ
and the Martyrdom of the Baptist, painted by Francesco Rustici at the
beginning of the seventeenth century, the Saint in Prison, by a modern
artist, Cesare Maccari.
High up to the left of this chapel is the tomb of Cardinal Riccardo
Petroni, a famous decretalist but a man of great charity (in spite of
Dante the two things are not quite incompatible) in the days of Boniface
VIII. It is probably by either Tino di Camaino or Gano, and is a good
example of these sepulchral monuments of the early Sienese school,
though here, as the monument is to a churchman, the religious ideal
prevails over the usually more secular style. In the left transept are
statues of the two Piccolomini Popes, Pius II. and Pius III., of whom
more presently. As far back as the middle of the sixteenth century, it
was supposed that the highly-revered wooden Crucifix, near the statue of
Pius III., was the one carried by the Sienese at Montaperti. The chapel
of St Ansanus, opposite that of the Blessed Sacrament, has an
altar-piece by Francesco Vanni, painted in 1596, representing the Saint
baptising the people of Siena, which is a decidedly favourable specimen
of the later Sienese school. The bronze relief on the pavement, the tomb
of a Bishop Giovanni Pecci, who died in 1426, is a signed work of
Donatello. The bas-reliefs let into the wall--representing the
Annunciation, the Nativity, the Procession and Adoration of the
Magi--date from the first half of the thirteenth century; they are
specially interesting here as, when compared with the great pulpit, they
illustrate the state of sculpture in Tuscany before the advent of
Niccolò Pisano, and enable us to realise what Niccolò effected.
The famous pulpit, by Niccolò and his pupils, was
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE DUOMO]
begun in 1266, the year after Dante's birth. It marks an epoch in the
history of Italian sculpture--even more so than did that earlier one in
the Baptistery of Pisa, when, in Carducci's splendid phrase, the
sculptor saw "the new and holy Venus of Italy" rise "from the Greek
sepulchre of German bones."[86] The sculptures of the pulpit at Pisa are
imitated from Roman bas-reliefs and differ little from the work of
Niccolò's predecessors and contemporaries, save in their superior
technical excellence; but here at Siena we recognise the working of a
new spirit; side by side with this close study of antiquity, we have a
direct return to natural models.[87] The pulpit is octagonal, supported
by eight pillars at the angles, each second pillar resting upon a lion
rending his prey, or a lioness giving suck to her young; a central
pillar, resting on the pedestal, being adorned with eight figures
representing arts and crafts. The capitals are beautifully worked with
birds and foliage, and above them are figures of the Virtues, while
above these again are symbolical figures between and uniting the scenes
in the bas-reliefs. First comes a Sibyl, as announcing the great mystery
among the Gentiles. Then we have the Visitation, Birth of the Baptist,
Nativity of Christ, and Adoration of the Shepherds--with Niccolò's
favourite troop of goats, one of them leaping up to look at the Madonna,
just as you may see one doing when a herd is driven over the bridge of
Spoleto past the shrine. Next is a group of Prophets, followed by the
Adoration of the Magi, a scene which contains some obvious and
successful attempts at portraiture. At the next angle are the Madonna
and Child, a very beautiful work which may rank as the first Italian
masterpiece in this kind. After this the Presentation in the Temple,
Joseph's Dream, the Flight into Egypt are united in one history. A group
of Angels is next, followed by the Massacre of the Innocents, full of
movement and dramatic vigour. Then comes a symbolical representation of
Christ as the Redeemer of the World; He is trampling upon two monsters,
while a lion crouches at His feet (possibly a reference to Psalm xci.
13); above His head are the Dove, the empty Throne, the hand of the
Father. The Crucifixion follows, and, after it, supporting the
reading-desk, the symbols of the four Evangelists. Finally comes the
Last Judgment in two divisions, Christ as Judge appearing in the midst,
surrounded with Angels bearing the emblems and instruments of the
Passion. It is the conventional mediaeval representation; the saved to
the right of the Judge, with, highest of all, the Madonna in
intercession; the lost to the left, with a hideous bestial Satan down in
the lowest corner; the dead rising to judgment, the Angels severing the
wicked from among the just. We find for the first time that dramatic
motive which became traditional--the casting out of the hypocritical
monk who had tried to insinuate himself among the just. Though the forms
are still stunted, we find unmistakable signs of a new spirit of
portraiture, and many of the heads are most admirable, though here and
there facial expression degenerates into grimace. At the end of all are
three Angels blowing the trumpets, as though to announce the
accomplishment of the great mystery of Redemption that the Sibyl had
foretold.
The steps and entrance to the pulpit were added in the latter part of
the Cinquecento, designed by Bartolommeo Neroni. Against the two last
pillars of the nave are the poles of the Carroccio of the Sienese at
Montaperti. Beneath the cupola are gilded statues of Siena's patrons
with indifferent late fifteenth century frescoes. Until Baldassare
Peruzzi altered the arrangement, the high altar stood here, under the
cupola, with Duccio's great picture--which is now in the Opera del
Duomo--upon it. Thence six bronze Angels, by Francesco di Giorgio and
Giovanni di Stefano, marshal us to the new high altar--designed by
Peruzzi--upon which rests the famous bronze tabernacle, executed between
1465 and 1472, by Vecchietta. The two Angels against the pillars on
either side of the altar are by Beccafumi, who practised casting in
bronze in the latter part of his life. The frescoes in the niche behind
the choir were originally by Beccafumi, painted in 1544, but have been
completely repainted and altered; the Assumption is an unimportant
Bolognese work. The other frescoes, representing the fall of Manna and
the story of Esther, as also the two groups of Saints and Beati of Siena
at the sides, were painted by Ventura Salimbeni, between 1608 and 1611.
The choir stalls are partly the work of Fra Raffaello da Brescia in
1520, partly from the designs of Bartolommeo Neroni half a century
later. The intarsia is the work of Fra Giovanni da Verona of 1503, the
organ-loft over the sacristy was executed by the two Barili in 1511.
There are several old Sienese paintings in the chapter-house beyond the
sacristy, especially two of San Bernardino preaching in the Campo and in
front of San Francesco. Above the choir there is a fine circular
stained-glass window, representing the Death, Assumption, and Coronation
of the Blessed Virgin, with the four Evangelists and four chief early
patrons of Siena; it was executed by Giacomo di Castello in 1369,
according to a document recently discovered in the Archivio dell'Opera
del Duomo.[88]
The left aisle is mainly devoted to the honour and glory of the House of
the Piccolomini. Enea Silvio Piccolomini held the bishopric from 1449 to
1458. After his elevation to the papacy he raised the See to an
archbishopric, and until 1597 it was always in the hands of one of his
own family. We have, in fact, a continuous series of Piccolomini
Archbishops of Siena; Antonio Piccolomini, 1458 to 1459; Francesco di
Nanni Todeschini, 1460 to 1501 (when he resigned), afterwards Pius III.;
the two nephews of Pius III., Giovanni di Andrea Todeschini Piccolomini,
1501 to 1529, and Francesco di Salustio Bandini, 1529 to 1588; Ascanio
di Enea Piccolomini, 1588 to 1597. After the third altar (from the
entrance), over which is an Epiphany by Pietro Sorri which is almost
Venetian in colour, is the monument of Alessandro Piccolomini,
Archbishop of Patras and afterwards coadjutor to Archbishop Bandini;
philosopher, poet, and dramatist, Alessandro is, unfortunately for his
moral reputation, best known by his early _Dialogo della Bella Creanza
delle Donne_, which in later life he retracted. The next altar, that of
the Piccolomini, was ordered by the Cardinal Francesco di Nanni
Todeschini, who, never contemplating the possibility of being destined
to sit in the papal chair, and therefore to rest in the Eternal City,
intended to be buried here, as the inscription on the steps states:
"Francesco, Cardinal of Siena, whilst still living had this sepulchre
made for himself"; and over the arch, as his sole title to fame, he has
"Francesco Piccolomini, Cardinal of Siena, nephew of the Supreme Pontiff
Pius II." He was a good and learned man, who, as we have seen, played a
pacific and moderating part in the turbulent politics of his native
city; he was prematurely aged and utterly broken down in health when, on
the death of the infamous Alexander VI., he was elected Pope in
September 1503 (much to his own dismay) by a sort of compromise between
the rival factions in the conclave, none of whom could secure the
elevation of its own candidate, but all hoping that there was no
prospect of him surviving the election very long. "God be thanked,"
wrote the General of the Camaldolese, "that the government of the Church
has been intrusted to such a man, who is so manifestly a storehouse of
all virtues, and the abode of the Holy Spirit of God. Under his care the
Lord's vineyard will no more bring forth thorns and thistles, but will
stretch out its fruitful branches to the ends of the earth."[89] He took
the name of Pius III., in memory of his uncle, and declared his
intention of reforming the Church, beginning with the Pope and the
Cardinals, and of restoring peace to Christendom. But the weight of the
great mantle of popedom crushed him, and he died in the following month,
"not deceiving," writes Guicciardini cynically, "the hopes that had been
formed at his election." The altar is in the main the work of Andrea
Fusina of Milan, and was begun in 1485. In 1501 Michelangelo undertook
to make fifteen statues for the Cardinal, _sua manu et opere_. On the
death of the Pope in 1503, he consigned four of these fifteen to his
heirs--his brothers Giacomo and Andrea Todeschini Piccolomini--to the
mutual satisfaction of both parties, and undertook to finish the eleven
that remained to do within two years, unless prevented by accident or
illness, or by the war concerning Pisa hindering the transport of marble
from the mountains of Carrara to Florence. These four statues are
apparently the four Saints in the niches on the outer framework of the
altar, fine figures somewhat in the style of Donatello's saints outside
Or San Michele. Of the remaining eleven, the only one that Michelangelo
ever executed is that placed on the top to the left--which is more in
his later style. He was somewhat troubled in his mind on the subject in
his old age. "Lionardo," he wrote to his nephew, on September 20th,
1561, "I should like you to search among the papers of your father
Lodovico, for the copy of a contract _in forma camerae_ made concerning
certain figures that I promised to continue for Pope Pius II. [_sic_]
after his death; and because the said work, owing to certain
differences, remained suspended about fifty years ago, and because I am
old, I should like to settle the matter, in order that you may not be
troubled about it unjustly after I am gone." In another letter from
Rome, on the last day of November, he tells him that the Archbishop of
Siena has volunteered to put the thing right for him, "and because he is
an excellent and skilful man, I believe that it will end
satisfactorily."[90] To the right of the altar is a Risen Christ, with
two adoring Angels, over the monument to the Bandini raised by this
Archbishop, Francesco Bandini Piccolomini; these figures are also, with
some plausibility, ascribed to Michelangelo.
The great work in Siena of Pius III. is the famous _Libreria_, which he
built as Cardinal for the books and MSS. that his uncle had left him.
Probably realising that he had little time left him to live, he wished
to erect this monument to his uncle's memory, and indirectly to his own.
Above the entrance at the end of the aisle is a fresco of his own
elevation to the papacy, painted after his death and after the
subsequent completion of the work, by Bernardino Pinturicchio. The
Pope's own figure is partly in relief; on either side of him are the
Cardinal Giovanni Colonna, who has taken off his mitre, and the
Cardinal Giovanni Antonio di San Giorgio, who is placing the papal tiara
upon his head. The whole lacks composition, and there is little, if any,
attempt at portraiture; but the crowd in the piazza includes some
beautiful figures and well rendered motives. A youth in the foreground
is evidently Raphael. Under the fresco are Francesco's arms as Cardinal
and as Pope. The marble work is by Lorenzo di Mariano, the admirable
bronze doors were executed by Antonio Ormanni.[91]
On entering we are at once struck by the dazzling profusion of gold and
colour, the splendid and opulent decorative effect of the whole. In the
contract between "the most reverend Lord Cardinal of Siena" and "Messer
Bernardino called Il Pinturicchio, painter of Perugia," dated June 29th,
1502, "to paint a Library placed in the Duomo of Siena," almost as much
stress is laid upon the "gold, azure, ultramarine, enamel-blue,
azure-greens and other pleasing colours" as upon the ten histories in
which he has to paint "the life of the Holy Memory of Pope Pius."[92]
Francesco was probably led to intrust the work to Pinturicchio, rather
than to a Sienese, because of the splendid work that he had just
completed in the Vatican for the reigning Pontiff (who was hardly
destined to leave a _santa memoria_), Alexander VI. The frescoes were
begun in 1503, interrupted by the death of Francesco as Pius III. (he
probably saw none of them), and resumed about the beginning of 1506.
The ten histories on the wall make up an ideal representation of the
career of a hero of the Renaissance. We see Enea Silvio in the first
scene, a youth riding a white horse, starting for Basle to seek his
fortunes in the great world away from the petty turmoils of his little
Italian republic, as secretary to the Cardinal Domenico Capranica, the
dignified ecclesiastic who heads the _cortège_ mounted upon a mule. In
the background is the western side of the bay of Genoa, from which they
made the journey by land to Basle. In the second, riper in years and in
worldly wisdom (but less successfully realised by the painter) he is at
Edinburgh before King James I. of Scotland, to whom he had been sent by
his new employer, the powerful and influential Cardinal of Santa Croce,
Niccolò d'Albergata, to persuade him to threaten the Border and so
prevent our Henry VI. from interfering with the continental peace that
had been concluded at Arras. This was in 1435. In the third, Enea Silvio
has mounted a step higher in the social scale, being crowned poet
laureate by the Emperor-elect, Frederick III., who made him one of his
imperial secretaries in 1442. Hitherto there had been an antipapal
tendency in the poet's movements; he had been involved in the more or
less schismatical Council, had been friendly with and on the point of
entering the service of the Savoyard antipope Felix. But Frederick
professed neutrality, and the next fresco, the fourth, shows us his
astute secretary's conversion to the papal side. We see him in Rome, in
1445, at the feet of Eugenius IV., to whom he had been sent as envoy by
the Emperor or, as it would be more accurate to call him at this epoch,
the King of the Romans. The two Cardinals in the foreground are said to
be his two friends in the Sacred College, the Cardinal of Amiens and the
Cardinal of Como, while the bearded prelate, the third on our left, is
the famous platonist, Johannes Bessarion of Trebizond. This marks a
turning point in Piccolomini's career; he turned away from his pagan,
licentious life to the study of theology, definitely entered the
Church, and set before his eyes two great objects: the unity of Roman
Catholicism, the rolling back of the tide of Turkish invasion.[93] There
can be little question that hope of advancement was his chief motive in
this conversion, but his after life as an ecclesiastic seems to show
that the nobler spiritual impulse was not altogether lacking. "To him,"
writes Dean Kitchin, "more than to any man is due the successful healing
of the schism of the West." In the next, the fifth fresco, which after
the first is the most beautiful of the series, he is Bishop of Siena,
presiding at the meeting of the Emperor and his bride Leonora of
Portugal outside the Porta Camollia, on February 24th, 1452. Behind the
Emperor stand Duke Albert of Austria and the young King Ladislaus of
Hungary and Bohemia. We read that the Emperor showed considerable
nervousness as he waited for his bride, whom he had never seen before.
"At first," writes Enea Silvio himself in his History of Frederick, "the
Caesar turned pale, when he saw his bride coming in the distance. But
when she drew near, and he beheld more and more her beautiful face and
her royal bearing, he became himself again and his colour returned, and
he waxed merry, for he found his lovely bride was even more lovely than
report had made her, and he perceived that he had not been deceived by
words, as often happens to princes who contract marriages by
procurators."[94] The fall of Constantinople in 1453 gave Bishop Enea
the opportunity of coming forward as the champion of the cause of
Christendom against the Moslem, the eloquent advocate of a new crusade.
In the sixth history, he receives the Cardinal's hat from Calixtus III.
in 1456; two Greek prelates stand conspicuously in the foreground, while
Bessarion appears again on our right; though not very like his
authentic portrait by Pinturicchio in the Vatican, the Cardinal standing
at the Pope's right hand is probably intended for his abominable nephew
Roderigo Borgia, afterwards Alexander VI., with whom Enea at this time
was on friendly terms. Then, in the seventh, the hero has reached the
goal of his earthly ambition, and becomes Pope Pius II. on September
3rd, 1458. He is being carried in procession to give his benediction to
the City and the World, while the Master of the Ceremonies burns a piece
of tow before him, with the traditional warning: _Sancte Pater, sic
transit gloria mundi_. Two Orientals are there to represent the Eastern
Question, that the new Pontiff had made his own. The eighth fresco
represents the opening of Congress of Mantua, in 1459, where Pius in
vain strove to rouse the powers of Christendom to concerted action; as
the fresco appropriately lets us perceive, the Pope himself and the
suppliant Christians of the East are the only people in earnest in the
matter. Then, in the ninth, he gratifies alike his national pride for
the glory of Siena and his own heart by the canonisation of St
Catherine, whose crusading zeal had anticipated his own. There is an
interesting group of portraits below on our left, the two most
conspicuous figures being Raphael and Pinturicchio himself, holding
lighted tapers, while the two beyond Pinturicchio, with their backs
turned to us, are probably his assistants, Eusebio di San Giorgio and
Bembo Romano. Last of all, in the tenth fresco, Pius is at Ancona, come
to head the crusade. He was dying, kept alive only by his indomitable
enthusiasm, when he reached the city in July 1464, only to find that
there were none to support him. In August the fleet of Venice appeared
upon the scene. The Pope was then on his death-bed; but the painter,
departing from historical fact, has represented him carried down to the
harbour to meet the Doge, Cristofero Moro, who is shown kneeling
[Illustration: _The Canonisation of St. Catherine._
_from Pinturicchio's Fresco._]
before him, but who in reality never landed until the Pope had passed
away. So faded a heroic dream. "It has pleased God," wrote the Senator
of Rome, Guido di Carlo Piccolomini, to the Signoria of Siena, on August
15th, "this night, at the third hour, to call to Himself the blessed
soul of the happy memory of Pope Pius. It is a little consolation to us
in so great a loss that, being mortal like other men, he has died the
most glorious Pontiff that for a very long time has sat in that
seat."[95]
In spite of the express stipulation in the contract that Pinturicchio
"shall be bound to make all the designs of the histories with his own
hand, in cartoons and on the walls, and to paint all the heads of the
figures in fresco with his own hand," Vasari declares that the designs
and cartoons for all the scenes were drawn by Raphael, then a youth.
This view, though once scouted by serious historians of Italian art, is
winning ground again in a modified form--at least so far as the first
and fifth, the journey to Basle, and the meeting of the Caesar with
Leonora, are concerned, for both of which there exist what seem to be
authentic drawings from Raphael's hand at Florence and Perugia
respectively.[96] The mythological and allegorical devices on the
ceiling, the arabesques and grotesques in the pilasters between the
histories with the six times repeated twin cherubs supporting the arms
of the Piccolomini, are by Matteo Balducci and other pupils and
assistants of Pinturicchio. The famous marble group of the Three Graces,
one of the first antiques to be worshipped in the days of the
Renaissance, was brought hither by the Cardinal Francesco; from it
Raphael made his first studies of ancient sculpture. Here, too, are
several superb choir books, with miniatures by Sano di Pietro, Girolamo
da Cremona, Liberale da Verona, and others. The sculptured woodwork is
by Antonio Barili. The Adam and Eve over the door is a meritorious
production of the school of Giacomo della Quercia.
Over the door of the right transept, outside the Cathedral, is a very
beautiful sculptured medallion of the Madonna and Child with Angels. It
is ascribed by M. Reymond to Donatello.
In what would have been a part of the right aisle of the larger Duomo,
is the _Opera del Duomo_, the Cathedral Museum. On the ground floor is a
room containing some of the original _graffiti_ from the pavement, where
these have been replaced by copies, and some of the statues from the
façade. Here, too, in a mutilated condition, are Giacomo della Quercia's
reliefs from the Fonte Gaia: the Madonna and Child; the Virtues; the
Creation of Adam and the Expulsion from Paradise (masterpieces which
even in their ruin are superb), and less important fragments. There is a
striking Moses, from a fountain in the Ghetto, probably by Federighi but
scarcely unworthy of Giacomo himself. Also by Federighi are the
bas-reliefs from the chapel in the Campo. A St John in terra-cotta by
Giacomo Cozzarelli and a Transfiguration by Girolamo Genga of 1510 are
also worthy of note. On the first floor, beyond the hall where designs
and models are exhibited connected with the restoration of the pavement,
is a small room containing original designs. Two, at least, are of first
importance; the design for the façade of the Baptistery of Siena, by
Giacomo di Mino del Pellicciaio (20); an old drawing said to represent
Giotto's original design for the Campanile of Florence (34), crowned
with the steeple that according to Vasari was abandoned "because it was
a German thing and of antiquated fashion." There are also plans
connected with the building of the Duomo (_e.g._ 60), and a curious
sketch (33) for the suggested portico to the Campo, said to have been
invented for Pandolfo Petrucci by Peruzzi and designed by a certain
Pomarelli. On the stairs are the Baptism of Christ, by Andrea del
Brescianino and his brother Raffaello, formerly in San Giovanni, and a
modern plan of the abandoned enlargement of the Duomo.
In the gallery of the second floor is what may, perhaps, be taken as the
supreme picture of the Middle Ages; the famous _ancona_ which Duccio di
Buoninsegna painted for the high altar of the Duomo. "It was the most
beautiful picture that was ever seen or made," wrote the contemporary
chronicler, Andrea Dei. "It cost more than three thousand golden
florins, and Duccio the painter laboured many years in doing it."
Documentary evidence shows that he took less than three years over the
work; it was assigned to him on October 9th, 1308, and it was borne in
triumph to its place on June 9th, 1311. To place it accurately in the
story of mediaeval art, we may remember that Giotto had already painted
his earlier works and was probably then engaged upon his frescoes in the
Arena at Padua, while it was precisely in these years that Dante was
labouring upon his _Inferno_ and hailing with fierce exultation the
advent of a political Messiah in the person of Henry of Luxemburg. A
public holiday was proclaimed when it was completed. With ringing of
bells from churches and palaces, the musicians of the Signoria marching
in front with trumpets, drums and tambourines, the picture was solemnly
carried in triumph from the painter's workshop through the Via di
Stalloreggi, along the Via di Città, then down and round the Campo, and
up again to its place in the Duomo. "On the day that it was carried to
the Duomo," writes an anonymous chronicler who was probably present,
"the shops were shut; and the Bishop bade that a goodly and devout
company of priests and friars should go in solemn procession,
accompanied by the _Signori Nove_ and all the officers of the Commune
and all the people; all the most worthy followed close upon the picture,
according to their degree, with lights burning in their hands; and then
behind them came the women and children, with great devotion. And they
accompanied the said picture as far as the Duomo, making procession
round the Campo as is the use, all the bells sounding joyously for the
devotion of so noble a picture as is this. And all that day they offered
up prayers, with great alms to the poor, praying God and His Mother who
is our advocate, that He may defend us in His infinite mercy from all
adversity and all evil, and that He may keep us from the hands of
traitors and enemies of Siena."[97]
In those days, as already remarked, the high altar stood under the
cupola, and the picture was painted on both sides. They have been
separated and otherwise mutilated; several smaller scenes have
disappeared, and the whole has suffered from neglect and from
restoration; but still, rich with gold and the bright colours that the
sumptuous Sienese loved, it remains a supreme manifestation of the soul
of mediaeval faith. In the great central panel is the vision of the
immaculate Virgin Mother--Queen of Heaven and Earth--with her Divine
Babe, "a beauty that was joy in the eyes of all the other saints," as
Dante has it; while Angels, "each distinct in splendour and in art,"
their brows decked with such jewels as the seer of Patmos saw in the New
Jerusalem of his revelation, cluster round her throne, bearing the
mystical wands that end in the symbol of the Blessed Trinity. The Prince
of the Apostles, the two Johns, the virgin martyrs Agnes and Catherine,
stand in contemplation, while at their
[Illustration: _The Crucifixion._
_by Duccio di Buoninsegna._]
Queen's feet kneel Siena's sainted patrons: Crescentius and Victor,
Savinus and Ansanus. And their prayer is the painter's own, that he has
inscribed upon the base of the throne: "Holy Mother of God, be Thou the
cause of rest to Siena, be life to Duccio because he has painted Thee
thus." The original back of this panel represents the Passion of Christ
in twenty-six scenes, from the entry into Jerusalem to the _Noli me
tangere_ and the appearing to the two on the way to Emmaus. There are,
further, eighteen separate scenes of different shapes and sizes,
originally forming part of the whole (including the _gradino_, back and
front), of different episodes from the lives of Christ and the Madonna.
No more perfect illustration of these sacred histories, from the point
of view of mediaeval tradition, has ever been painted. Duccio
anticipates Raphael, in that side of his achievement in which the great
master of Urbino, by the illustration that (with his followers) he
supplied to religious history and legend, "has given an Hellenic garb to
the Hebraic universe."[98] But he is almost untouched by the new spirit
that was manifesting itself in Giotto's panels and frescoes. "Duccio,"
says Mr Berenson, "properly regarded, is the last of the great artists
of antiquity, in contrast to Giotto, who was the first of the
moderns."[99]
There are also in this gallery: St Paul enthroned, his conversion and
martyrdom being seen in the background, by Beccafumi; St Jerome, by
Giovanni di Paolo; the legend of the Finding of the Cross by St Helena
and its recovery from the Persians by Heraclius, by Pietro Lorenzetti;
four Saints (69, 70, 72, 73) by Ambrogio Lorenzetti; a predella by
Matteo di Giovanni; the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin (63), an
admirable picture by Pietro Lorenzetti, signed and dated 1342; a Madonna
and Child with Saints (64), by Matteo di Giovanni; St Antony of Padua
(14), by Matteo Balducci; the apparition of St Francis to St Antony
(62), by Giovanni di Paolo; nine scenes illustrating the _Credo_, by
Taddeo di Bartolo; a quaint _Madonna lactante_, with Angel Musicians
(59), by Gregorio da Siena, of 1323. Here also is preserved the
episcopal ring of Pius II. In the further portion of the hall are
embroidered vestments and other articles of church furniture. A door at
the end admits you into the unfinished façade. A series of narrow
winding stairs leads up to the very top of it, with a superb view of
Siena and the country round.
[Illustration: STEPS BESIDE THE BAPTISTERY]
Under the Duomo to the east is the Baptistery, San Giovanni di Siena, a
construction of the same epoch as the Cathedral itself. The façade was
begun in 1317, modified in 1382 from the design of Giacomo di Mino del
Pellicciaio, but left unfinished. On the pavement in front of the three
doors are three scenes in _graffito_ representing the birth of a child,
the sacrament of Baptism, the administration of Confirmation; they were
laid down in the middle of the fifteenth century, the one in the centre
(the Baptism) being designed and executed by Antonio Federighi. The
interior has been completely restored. The Baptismal Font, which
includes a tabernacle for preserving the holy oils, is one of the
earliest masterpieces of the sculptural art of the Quattrocento,
showing, in its architectural details, the transition from the Gothic to
the style of the early Renaissance. The design of the whole is due to
Giacomo della Quercia, the marble work being executed by his pupils. On
the six sides of the font are six bronze bas-reliefs, representing
scenes in the life of the Baptist, separated by six niches enshrining
bronze figures of the Virtues. In 1417 the _Operaio_ of the Duomo
assigned two of these six bas-reliefs to Giacomo della Quercia, two to
Turino di Sano and his son Giovanni, two to the great Florentine Lorenzo
Ghiberti--the fame of whose nearly completed bronze door (the first of
the two that he cast) was then ringing through Tuscany. Giacomo della
Quercia showing himself tardy and preoccupied as usual with other
commissions, one of his two histories was assigned to Donatello instead,
in 1421. By 1427 the series was complete, and the Signoria forced
Giacomo to return from Bologna, at the instance of the authorities of
the Duomo, in the following year to bring the whole work to an end,
which was done by 1434.[100] The histories begin opposite the altar. The
Apparition of the Angel to Zaccharias in the Temple is by Giacomo della
Quercia, a fine example of the simplicity of means with which the great
sculptor of Siena obtains his effects, with no unnecessary figures,
disregarding all but what is essential. The Justice and Prudence on
either side of it, as also the Birth of the Precursor and the Preaching
in the Wilderness, are by the two Turini--the bas-reliefs being
excellent works, fully worthy of their place in the series. The
Fortitude between them is four years later, having been cast in 1431 by
Goro di Neroccio. The following statue, Charity, is by Turino. The
Baptism of Christ and John before Herod are both by Lorenzo Ghiberti,
finished in 1427. These two admirable reliefs, as M. Reymond observes,
represent the transition from the style of Ghiberti's first bronze door
in Florence to that of his second, the disposition of the figures and
the absence of perspective in the scene before Herod resembling the
style of the first door, while the group of Angels attending upon the
Saviour in the Baptism heralds the triumph of that second door which
Michelangelo was to declare worthy to be the portal of Paradise. The
beautiful, expressive figures of Faith and Hope are Donatello's. By
Donatello, too, is Herod's Feast, a masterpiece full of energy and
dramatic expression. Although both Ghiberti and Donatello dispose their
figures on different planes so as to give the bas-relief the appearance
of a picture in bronze, their methods show one notable point of
contrast; Ghiberti gains depth by detaching his front figures almost in
full relief, while Donatello produces a similar effect more by effacing
those in the distance.[101] The four charming little _putti_ in bronze
upon the tabernacle, "certi fanciullini ignudi," as the record of
payment styles them, are also by Donatello. The five marble figures in
the niches of the tabernacle are by Pietro del Minella, the bronze
Madonna and Child by Giovanni di Turino. The statue of the Baptist
surmounting the whole was probably designed by Giacomo and executed by
Pietro del Minella.
The frescoes of the Baptistery for the most part belong to the middle
of the fifteenth century. The three miracles of St Antony of Padua under
the arch to the left of the chief altar, the Articles of the Creed in
the vaulting, are by Vecchietta who began to paint here in 1450, and was
assisted in 1453 by his young pupil, Benvenuto di Giovanni. The
paintings behind the chief altar, representing the Annunciation, the
Passion, the Assumption, appear to be by a certain Michele Lambertini of
Bologna, a few years earlier. The Christ in the house of Simon, under
the arch to the right, was painted in 1489 by Pietro di Francesco degli
Oriuoli, a Sienese artist of much reputation in his day, who died in
1496.[102]