_Through the City of the Virgin_
At the famous Croce del Travaglio, where the Bohemian Caesar learned to
respect the might of a free people and Giovanni Martinozzi routed the
hireling soldiery of the last of the Petrucci, the three chief streets
of Siena lead off into the three Terzi: the Via Cavour into the Terzo di
Camollia, the Via Ricasoli into the Terzo di San Martino, the Via di
Città into the Terzo di Città.
"In every good city," so runs a report of a commission of the Council of
the People in 1398, "provision is made for the adornment and improvement
of the city. And you have this your piazza of the Campo which is the
most beautiful that exists, and you _had_ that ornament of the Strada
de' Banchi which began at the piazza of the Tolomei and came down as far
as Porta Salaia, such that, neither in Venice nor in Florence nor in any
other town in this country, was there a more beautiful street. Now it is
spoilt; for shoemakers and tailors have returned to it, and it is
spoilt. Let therefore our Signori choose four citizens, who shall have
to embellish it, so that the bankers shall be together in one part of
it, the drapers and goldsmiths in another, the furriers and armourers in
another, and that within these limits no other trades can be exercised
save those that shall be ordained by these four."[131] During the
fifteenth century, there was a regular magistracy of three citizens
elected annually to have the full authority of the General Council in
all matters pertaining to the adorning of the city; they were called the
_Ufficiali sopra l'ornato_, and were even empowered to force people to
sell houses and sites, when these, from jealousy or other motives, were
preventing wealthy citizens from building goodly palaces, _bellissimi
casamenti_--"the which thing causes shame and damage to the city."[132]
The street referred to in the above document now includes the first
sections of the Via Cavour and Via di Città, and is the most animated
part of Siena. Turning up the Via di Città, we have on our left the
Loggia di Mercanzia, the meeting-place of the merchants of the Republic,
the centre of the commercial life of the city in the fifteenth century,
which afterwards became the Casino de' Nobili. It was designed by Sano
di Matteo in 1416, and mainly executed about 1438 by Pietro del Minella,
in a style (like that of the Loggia dei Lanzi at Florence) intermediate
between Gothic and Renaissance. Of the saints on the façade, St Peter
and St Paul are by Vecchietta, Victor, Ansanus and Savinus by Antonio
Federighi; the two marble seats, to right and left, are by Federighi and
Il Marrina respectively. On the right, past the meeting-place of the
Accademia de' Rozzi (an institution dating from the early part of the
Cinquecento), under a kind of colonnade begin the curious Via dei
Beccari, the street of the butchers, with the oxhead of their guild
prominently displayed (becoming presently the most picturesque of
Siena's old streets, the Via della Galluzza), and the long Via
Fontebranda. Then, on the left, the Costa dei Barbieri leads down into
the Campo; here in old times was the Porta Salaia, the name of which is
still preserved in the Vicolo di Macta Salaia, a little further on.
Guarding the Costa is a fine old tower, called of the "Sette
Seghinelle," with various armorial bearings; opposite it, on the right
side of the Via di Città, the Podestà lived, before the building of the
present Palazzo Comunale.
Opposite the Costa, the Via dei Pellegrini leads off to the Baptistery.
On the right is the Palazzo Bindi Sergardi, with ceiling frescoes by
Beccafumi, which were greatly admired in their day, and gained for him
the commission to decorate similarly the Sala di Concistoro. On the
left, at the foot of the Baptistery, is the famous Palace of the
Magnifico, built for Pandolfo Petrucci in the early years of the
Cinquecento from the design of Giacomo Cozzarelli, who also cast the
splendid metal work on the exterior. The arms of the Petrucci are still
to be seen under what was the chief entrance, but the lower part of the
palace is very squalid now. Of the frescoes that Luca Signorelli,
Girolamo Genga and Bernardino Pinturicchio painted for the Magnifico,
there now remains nothing but a few fragments in one room, doubtfully
ascribed to the last-named master. Hardly can we now conjure up in
imagination the days when Machiavelli, coming here as ambassador of the
Signoria of Florence, found Pandolfo after dinner surrounded by the
chief men of his faction, whom he had invited to talk over the matter,
or when Borghese gathered together all the loveliest women of Siena at a
banquet to do honour to the younger Lorenzo de' Medici.
From the Costa de' Barbieri, the Via di Città leads up into the very
heart of old Siena--the Castello Vecchio. On the left is the Palazzo
Saracini, a Gothic palace of the thirteenth century completely restored,
which came into the possession of the Saracini--whose Saracen's head and
eagle adorn the façade--at the beginning of the seventeenth century. In
the olden days it was the Palazzo Marescotti, and the tower that we see,
if not in
[Illustration: PALAZZO SARACINI]
all respects the same, undoubtedly stands upon the site of the one from
which Cerreto Ceccolini announced the varying fortunes of the battle of
Montaperti. In the courtyard is a statue of Pope Julius III.
(1550-1555), Giovanni Maria del Monte, whose mother belonged to the
house of the Saracini. The palace contains a large collection of
pictures in a long series of rooms. A few only are of importance. Here
are several pictures by Beccafumi, conspicuous among which is a large
altarpiece, curiously imitating the style of Fra Bartolommeo's stately
creations in this kind and representing the Sposalizio of St Catherine
of Siena, in the presence of St Peter and St Paul and other Saints. It
was originally in Santo Spirito. "This work," says Vasari, "which was
executed with much judgment and design, gained for him great honour."
Here is also what is said to be the first sketch of Beccafumi's Nativity
in San Martino. There are two characteristic Madonnas by Neroccio di
Bartolommeo Landi. Andrea del Brescianino is represented by a Holy
Family, two exceedingly beautiful _tondi_ very much above his usual
level, and a small painted shrine. An attractive Florentine portrait of
a golden-haired girl in a red dress, with the attributes of St Catherine
of Alexandria, shown as a Botticelli, is ascribed by Mr Berenson to
Sebastiano Mainardi, the painter of San Gimignano. The earlier works by
Giovanni di Paolo, Sassetta and others, are mostly unimportant. There is
an excellent modern picture by Amos Cassioli representing the visit of
Galeazzo Maria Sforza to Lorenzo de' Medici in 1471. In one of the rooms
of the palace there is a small Madonna, much repainted, by Sano di
Pietro.
On the right is the Palazzo Piccolomini "delle Papesse," adorned with
the arms of the Piccolomini and now occupied by the Banca d'Italia,
begun in 1460 by the sister of Pope Pius II., Caterina Piccolomini, who
in the October of that year petitioned the Signoria for exemption from
the Gabella for the various stones and marbles required, on the grounds
that "the said Madonna Caterina intends and wishes to make the said
house in the most noble fashion and with great cost, to the honour of
this magnificent city and of your Magnificences and lofty
Lordships."[133] In style it shows a peculiar harmonising of the Sienese
Gothic with the domestic architecture of the Florentine Quattrocento.
The façade is an effective combination of a rusticated basement with
smooth grey stone above. The original designer was probably Bernardino
Rossellino, the Florentine master whom Pius was employing at Pienza, the
actual architects Antonio Federighi and Urbano da Cortona. The work was
interrupted in 1472, owing to Madonna Caterina's lack of means, and
finished in 1595 by the Archbishop Ascanio Piccolomini. In the days of
this latter genial prelate the palace was a great centre for social
gatherings, "to hearken to gracious discussions, judicious discourses,
and also disputations touching every noble matter."[134]
Beyond the Palazzo delle Papesse is the Palazzo Marsili, a Gothic
edifice in red brick--one of the oldest in Siena, but practically
rebuilt by Luca di Bartolo in the middle of the fifteenth century.
Between these two, the Via del Castoro leads up through the abandoned
façade into the Piazza del Duomo. In the days when it was proposed to
build the new Cathedral, the Palazzo delle Papesse naturally did not
exist, and in its place there would have been a piazza with the chief
approach to the Duomo. At the end of the Via di Città is the grey
tower, half stone and half brick, of the Forteguerri de' Grandi, one of
the oldest noble families of Siena, which was originally connected by a
bridge with the palace opposite, which was also of the Forteguerri
(later one of the numerous palaces of the Piccolomini). It was here that
Niccolò Borghesi was murdered in June, 1500. He was returning from Mass
at the Duomo with several armed servants--for he had been warned that
Pandolfo was meditating violence--and passing down the Via del Capitano,
when Pandolfo's emissaries set upon him, killed his servants on the
spot, and left him with just enough life to crawl to the foot of the
tower, where he was taken into the house of Giovanni Borghesi, to die
with that harmonious blending of the devout Christian and the Stoic
philosopher that had characterised him throughout.
The Via di Città ends in the Piazza di Postierla, whence the Via del
Capitano, Via Stalloreggi, and Via di San Pietro diverge. There is a
"Lupa" of the Quattrocento in the square, with a banner-holder in the
fine metal-work of the same epoch. In the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries the Postierla was a favourite resort of the Sienese nobility,
one of the most fashionable places in the city. During the siege, the
four ladies of Scipione Bargagli's _Trattenimenti_--Clarice, Celia,
Olinda and Clizia--met in Clarice's house, which was one of those with
windows that looked out upon the Postierla. They were "all certainly as
young and pleasing, as they were clever and honest"; and, it being the
Sunday of the Carnival, they resolved, in spite of the cruel enemies of
the Republic, to keep the three days of the Carnival, as Clarice
suggested, "with some form of pleasant and gentle conversation,
according to what will be most agreeable to us all." But men were needed
to make the plan a success. "Indeed," said Celia, "our delight, however
great, would not have its savour unless the presence, at once grave and
sweet, of a man brought its condiment to it." And at that moment there
appeared five young men of the city, coming up the street, of course as
wise and admirable as they were rich and noble. "In these ardent youths,
neither hardships nor loss of means, nor of parents or friends, nor the
danger that hung over themselves, had ever been able to cool, much less
quench, that quick amorous fire wherewith they, without any fuel, bore
their breasts inflamed." At this sudden apparition the ladies gave
devout thanks to Heaven in their hearts, and the _bella ragunanza_ was
complete.
On the right of the Postierla is the handsome palace built by the Chigi
in the latter part of the Cinquecento. In the Via del Capitano, on the
left, is the palace where the Capitano della Guerra or Senatore resided,
during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.[135] Under its
battlements runs a series of coats of arms of these captains or
senators, among which the student of Dante will recognise the Lion of
the Ordelaffi and the Column of the Colonna. The palace has been
completely restored. The cortile, with a staircase guarded by the Lion
of the People, somewhat resembles--on a smaller scale--the Palazzo del
Podestà at Florence. The palace (which now belongs to the Count
Piccolomini della Triana, as the arms on the shield which the Lion holds
indicate) was sold by the Republic in the fifteenth century to Tommaso
Pecci, one of the leaders of the Noveschi. In his days it was a centre
of gay courtly life, and when distinguished visitors, especially those
of the gentle sex, passed through Siena, they were usually entertained
by the Republic in this palace. That noblest of ladies of the
Renaissance, Eleonora of Aragon (the sister of Duke Alfonso of
Calabria), on her way to Ferrara to become the wife of
[Illustration: THE TOWER OF SANT' ANSANO]
Ercole d'Este, stayed here for four days in June 1473. On Sunday, writes
Allegretto, "the Commune of Siena, or rather the Signoria, arranged a
most beauteous dance before the house of Tommaso Pecci in the street,
and all the fair ladies and girls of Siena were invited. And my wife
either lost there or had stolen from her a goodly knife, ornamented in
silver, which cost me eighteen lire the pair. And in the street there
was arranged a great vat of forty measures, divided in half, and a
column in the middle upon which were a lion and a wolf, so that the lion
threw white wine on one side of the vat and the wolf threw red wine on
the other side, and a fountain in the midst between the lion and the
wolf threw water. And in the vat stood always silver cups, in order that
every one could drink. At the Loggia of the Officers of the Mercanzia,
ninety-eight couples of ladies assembled and went to the dance in order,
accompanied by as many youths, and in front of the house they danced
until nightfall, when there was made a rich and fine collation of all
kinds of confectionery."[136]
Opposite the Palazzo del Capitano, at the corner of the street and the
Piazza del Duomo, is the Palazzo Reale, which Bernardo Buontalenti built
at the end of the sixteenth century for the Medicean Grand Dukes of
Tuscany. In part, it occupies the site of the palace of Giacoppo
Petrucci in which his cruel and tyrannical son, the Cardinal Raffaello,
resided. Raffaello left it to his nephew, Anton Maria Petrucci. It was
here that the Emperor was lodged in 1536; from here Granvelle and
Sfondrato made their "buonissima riforma" of the State, and afterwards
the Cardinal Ippolito d'Este with his guard of Switzers.
In the Via di San Pietro is the great red brick Palazzo Buonsignori,
with a richly ornamented façade, one of the finest private palaces in
Siena in the Gothic style. It was originally built in the fourteenth
century, but has a fine court and stairway of the Quattrocento. Between
it and the steps to the church is a small Gothic palace of the
thirteenth century (completely restored), known as the _Casa della Pia_.
This was the house of Count Nello de' Pannocchieschi, whose fair fame
(in spite of painters and novelists) recent research has cleared from
the imputation of his having been the husband--and therefore the
murderer--of La Pia, that hapless lady whom Siena made and Maremma
unmade, whom the divine poet met among the dim shades of those who died
a violent death.[137] San Pietro alle Scale, the parish church of San
Pietro in Castelvecchio, is a structure of the thirteenth century, with
a modernised façade and interior. There are two small _tondi_ by Sano di
Pietro, representing the Archangel Gabriel and Santa Lucia, in the
sacristy. The picture over the high altar, the Repose on the Flight into
Egypt with a handsome swarthy Madonna, is a decidedly meritorious work
by Rutilio Manetti. At the end of the Via di San Pietro the Porta
dell'Arco leads out beyond the older circuit of walls which represented
the limits of the city proper, until the Nine inclosed the suburb in the
still standing walls of the fourteenth century.
The Via Stalloreggi is the continuation of the Via di Città as the Via
di San Pietro is of the Via del Capitano. Inclosed by the two, bounded
outside by the Via delle Cerchia and the Via Baldassare Peruzzi, is the
oldest part of the city. At the corner of the Via di Castelvecchio in
the Via Stalloreggi, at a house once belonging to one of the Marescotti,
is a fresco by Bazzi, "where a dead Christ, who is in the lap of His
Mother, hath a marvellous grace and divinity."[138] The Via di
Castelvecchio intersects this oldest part of Siena. It is a tall, narrow
winding street, in parts squalid, but with here and
[Illustration: POZZO DELLA DIANA]
there a sudden glimpse of a rose garden, or a fig tree in a little
cortile bending its branches over the way. In the less picturesque Via
San Quirico is the church of San Quirico, perhaps the oldest in Siena,
but now modernised. By the side of it, an irritating piece of wall cuts
off what should be a superb view of the Duomo. In the same street are
the remains of the little church of Sant' Ansano in Castelvecchio, which
was possibly the first baptistery of Siena and of which there is
documentary evidence as far back as the year 881.[139] Near it stands an
old tower, the Rocchetta, which is probably the only remnant of the
first castle and certainly the most venerable piece of masonry left in
Siena; according to the legend, it was here that St Ansanus himself was
imprisoned by the Roman governor before his martyrdom. In the Via delle
Murelle (now Via Tommaso Pendola) is the chapel of the Contrada della
Tartuca. This part of Siena is rich in charitable institutions. On
either side of the street is a great institute for the Deaf and Dumb,
and in the refectory of an old convent of the Poor Clares (now the
female side of the Institute) the Sisters of Charity show you a
beautiful fresco of the Last Supper with scenes from the Passion above.
It appears to be the work of some Sienese master of the latter part of
the Quattrocento, who had, perhaps, seen Andrea del Castagno's rendering
of the same theme in Santa Appollonia at Florence. The last house in the
Via Stalloreggi, on the left, is the one in which Duccio painted his
glorious masterpiece, and it was hither that the procession came, to
take it in triumph to its place beneath the cupola of the Duomo. Then we
pass out of the old city, under the Arco delle due Porte, into the
Piazza del Carmine, now a part of the Via Baldassare Peruzzi.
The present church and convent of Santa Maria del Carmine were built
early in the sixteenth century, possibly from Peruzzi's designs; the
cloisters are particularly graceful. The convent itself is of very
ancient origin, and in the further cloister is the famous Pozzo della
Diana--which, however, may possibly have no connection, save by name,
with Dante's cut at the vain hopes and foolish expenditure of the
Sienese.[140] The church contains some good pictures: the Nativity of
the Blessed Virgin by Bazzi; the Ascension of Christ by Pacchiarotti;
the Adoration of the Shepherds, begun by Il Riccio and finished by
Arcangiolo Salimbeni. But finer than any of these is Beccafumi's St
Michael casting down the rebellious Angels, over the altar opposite the
chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, a work of much beauty and great
imaginative power, enthusiastically--but hardly excessively--praised by
Vasari. Baldassare Peruzzi, Messer Giorgio tells us, was never tired of
praising it; "and one day that I saw it with him, uncovered, as I was
passing through Siena, I was struck dumb with admiration." The sacristy
contains a statue of St Sigismund, ascribed to Giacomo Cozzarelli. The
Palazzo Celsi opposite is ascribed to Peruzzi and contains three ceiling
paintings attributed to him, ruined by repainting.
From the Via Baldassare Peruzzi, the Via della Diana and the Via di San
Marco lead to the most picturesquely placed of Sienese gates--the Porta
San Marco, outside which is a pleasant and shady piazzale with a view
over the sweeping country to the distant hills, the Monastery of Sant'
Eugenio standing out conspicuously on its eminence in the foreground.
The picturesque Via delle Sperandie leads to the same gate, past a large
abandoned convent--the cloisters of which have been deserted even by
the
[Illustration: VIA DELLE SPERANDIE]
soldiers, a frescoed Crucifixion alone remaining to show that it was
once a religious place.
The Via delle Cerchia, skirting the older circuit of walls, brings us to
the piazza and church of Sant' Agostino, an ancient edifice completely
modernised in the eighteenth century. Over the second altar on the right
is the Crucifixion, a late work by Perugino, with a number of saints and
the Madonna at the foot of the Cross; the group of St Augustine
kneeling, with St Monica standing behind him, is finely conceived. The
chapel of the Blessed Sacrament is the chapel of the Piccolomini; the
decorations of the altar were undertaken by the Archbishop Ascanio
Piccolomini in 1596, "for the worship of God Almighty and the honour of
his own family." The altarpiece, Bazzi's Adoration of the Magi, in spite
of the blackening of the shadows and the overcrowding of the figures, is
an exceedingly fine work, thoroughly Lombard in composition and feeling,
the beautiful young King on the right curiously recalling Luini's types;
"there is," says Vasari, "a head of a shepherd between two trees, which
seems verily alive," and which is said to be the painter's own portrait.
The picture was painted for two of the Arduini family, and the name and
arms of the Archbishop Ascanio are obviously a later addition. On the
left is a marble statue of Pius II. by Duprè, and on the right the
Massacre of the Innocents by Matteo di Giovanni. This latter picture
shows sufficient dramatic energy and sense of beauty to make us wish
that these were displayed upon a less horrible subject. The groups of
unconcerned children and the classical bas-reliefs remind us of Matteo's
admirable work upon the pavement of the Duomo, but the king and soldiers
are mere hideous caricatures. In the choir is a picture in three
divisions--a work in which Mr Berenson calls attention to the
"extraordinary grace of motion and beauty of line"--by Simone Martini,
representing the blessed Agostino Novello (a courtier of King Manfred,
who became a hermit) and four scenes of his miracles. The later Sienese
school is fairly well represented by a Way to Calvary by Ventura
Salimbeni, and a curious picture (on the last altar to the left of the
choir) by Rutilio Manetti, representing the Temptation of St Antony.
Beyond Sant' Agostino is the Porta Tufi, so often mentioned in the story
of Siena, outside which, on the site of the present Cimitero della
Misericordia, was the famous convent of the Olivetani where Bernardo
Tolomei died.
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
[Illustration: _Via della Fonte_]
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
[Illustration: FONTE SAN MAURIZIO]
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.
It is a curious turn of fortune that he of whom "all Tuscany sounded"
after Montaperti, and of whom "they hardly whispered in Siena" after his
fall at Colle,[151] should have given his name to the most conspicuous
modern church in his native city. The Madonna of Provenzano was raised
to the Blessed Virgin as Protectress of Siena at the end of the
sixteenth century. As an inscription to the left of the church bears
witness (and there is a most unsavoury _novella_ of Pietro Fortini's to
the same effect), this part of the city was notorious for its evil
living, mainly given up to houses of ill-fame, especially in the days of
the Spanish occupation. According to the legend, St Catherine had set up
a little shrine with an image of the Madonna here, which was
rediscovered by Brandano, who declared that here was the greatest
treasure of Siena, and that "hither all the most honoured ladies of the
nation shall one day come." In 1594 the image began to work miracles,
and the present sanctuary was built in consequence.[152] The pictures
that it contains are naturally by later Sienese masters, such as
Francesco Vanni and Rustichino. In the sacristy there is what purports
to be a portrait of Brandano.
The great church of San Francesco was mainly built in the second quarter
of the fourteenth century, from the designs of Agostino di Giovanni and
Agnolo di Ventura. It was outside the walls and there was a gate of San
Francesco, under the arch of which we still pass to-day. When Pius II.
came to Siena, he stayed in the convent and the gate had to be kept open
at night for the convenience of his numerous visitors[153]--which
induced the Concistoro to decree that it should henceforth be included
within the walls. Over the door of the church is a statue of St Francis,
by Ramo di Paganello of about 1288. Ruined by fire in the seventeenth
century, abandoned to military purposes in the nineteenth and recently
restored, the building is but the shadow of its former self. Still, in
spite of the modern stained-glass windows from Munich, it remains the
most simple and severe, the most typical and austerely Franciscan of all
the Italian Gothic churches of Tuscany. The paintings and sculptures
that it contains are mere fragments of its original decorations, and for
the most part transferred from other parts of the church and convent.
The ruined fresco of the Visitation, on the right of the entrance, is
ascribed by Mr Berenson to Taddeo di Bartolo. In the second chapel on
the right of the choir is the monument of Cristoforo Felici (one of the
Operai of the Duomo) of 1462, one of the best works of Urbano da
Cortona. In the choir are marble half-length portraits of Silvio
Piccolomini and Vittoria Forteguerri, the only remains of the sumptuous
monument that their son, Pope Pius II., raised to their memory in 1458.
In the first chapel on the left is a frescoed Crucifixion by Pietro
Lorenzetti, and in the third chapel are two scenes from the history of
the Franciscan order--St Francis before the Pope and the Martyrdom of
Franciscan Missionaries--by Ambrogio Lorenzetti. Ruined and repainted,
these latter appear to be the remains of a series of frescoes which
Ghiberti saw and admired in the cloisters here. The chapel opposite was
formerly that of the nephews of Pius II., the Todeschini Piccolomini and
Piccolomini d'Aragona; it was restored and modernised by a noble lady of
the Saracini a few years ago. The Cardinal Virtues on the pavement were
originally executed by Lorenzo di Mariano. In the cloisters, outside the
Seminary chapel, there is a Madonna Lattante, entitled _Sedes
Sapientiae_, by Giacomo Cozzarelli. The chapel itself contains a most
beautiful Madonna and Child by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, and a large fresco,
of uncertain authorship, of the same epoch. The Seminary further
possesses several good early Sienese paintings.
Under the shadow of San Francesco rises the little oratory of his great
Sienese follower, San Bernardino. On the ground floor is a Madonna and
Child with St Ansanus and St Bartholomew, a beautiful early work of
Andrea del Brescianino. On the upper floor, in an antechapel, are a
Madonna by Sano di Pietro and a marble bas-relief, the Madonna with
Angels, signed by Agostino di Giovanni. The oratory itself is the
"Siena's Art-laboratory" of Robert Browning's _Pacchiarotto_ poem. Its
walls are covered by a series of frescoes by Bazzi, Girolamo del Pacchia
and Beccafumi, painted between 1518 and 1532, among the finest
achievements of these three masters, under a richly decorated roof of
the end of the Quattrocento by Giuliano Turapilli. On the left wall are:
St Louis of Anjou by Bazzi; the Nativity of the Madonna, by Pacchia,
showing Florentine influence; the Presentation in the Temple, by Bazzi;
the Sposalizio by Beccafumi; San Bernardino by Pacchia. On the altar
wall, between the Archangel and the Virgin of the Annunciation by
Pacchia, is a grandiose fresco by Beccafumi (painted in 1537, nearly
twenty years later than his other works here), representing the Madonna
and Child enthroned with Apostles, Franciscans, and Angels. On the right
wall are: St Antony of Padua, now ascribed to Pacchia; the Visitation by
Bazzi; the Death of the Blessed Virgin, with Angels and Apostles
clustering round, Christ rushing down from Heaven to receive her soul,
by Beccafumi; the Assumption and St Francis by Bazzi. Between the
windows is the Coronation of Mary in Heaven by the Blessed Trinity, with
the Baptist and Adam as assessors, also by Bazzi.
The little church of San Pietro Ovile contains two good early Sienese
paintings. On the right is the Annunciation with, above, the Crucifixion
between St Peter and St Paul; the central scene is a copy, with
variations and some change of sentiment, from the well-known picture by
Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi in the Uffizi. Opposite to it is a
Madonna and Child by Pietro Lorenzetti, between San Bernardino and the
Baptist by Matteo di Giovanni.
* * * * *
"Before you, magnificent and potent Lords, Lords Priors, Governors of
the Commune, and Captain of the People of Siena,"--thus begins a
petition of February 25th, 1465 (_i.e._ 1466)--"the least of your
children and servants, the Officers over the Adornment of your City,
with due reverence set forth that they are continually thinking how to
do what may be to the adorning of the city, especially on the Strada
Romana where pass the strangers who give praise to all the city."[154]
This
[Illustration: PIAZZA AND PALAZZO TOLOMEI]
Strada Romana is the present Via Cavour, still the busiest in the city.
Passing up it towards Camollia, from the Croce del Travaglio, we come to
the Piazza Tolomei, in which the people assembled on the eve of
Montaperti. The great grey stone Palazzo Tolomei, its portals guarded by
two lions and surmounted by the armorial bearings, the three crescent
moons, of that great Guelf House, was begun in 1208; it is the oldest,
perhaps the most imposing of all the private palaces in Siena. The
councils of the State occasionally met here in the first days of Guelf
preponderance after the battle of Colle, and it was here that King
Robert of Naples was entertained in 1310. In earlier times--those
eventful days that preceded Montaperti--the General Council met in San
Cristofano opposite. The column with the Lupa--though the present wolf
only dates from the seventeenth century--was originally erected in 1260,
after Montaperti, in token of this. The church itself was modernised in
the eighteenth century. It contains some tombs of the Tolomei and a good
picture by Girolamo del Pacchia, representing the Madonna and Child
between St Luke and the Blessed Bernardo. It was in this church in 1376
that St Catherine effected a reconciliation between the Maconi, headed
by Stefano and his father Corrado, and the Tolomei and Rinaldini. Behind
it, round and about the Via del Re, there are a number of picturesque
old houses of that epoch standing and several towers that once belonged
to the Tolomei.[155]
On the left, next to the Gothic Palazzo Tolomei, is a graceful little
palace in the style of the fifteenth century, decorated above with the
Lily of Florence. Further on, on the right, is the Palazzo Bichi,
rebuilt in 1520 for the unfortunate Alessandro. At the corner of the
Piazza Salimbeni is the Palazzo Spannocchi, begun in 1473 for Messer
Ambrogio Spannocchi, the treasurer of Pius II. It is a perfect type of
the massive, yet graceful domestic architecture of the Florentine
Quattrocento. Formerly ascribed to Bernardino Rossellino, Signor Lisini
has recently discovered reason for believing that it (as well as the
palace in the Via Romana of the Abbot of San Galgano) was built under
the direction of Giuliano da Maiano.[156]
The vast Gothic Palazzo Salimbeni, a compromise between a castle and a
palace, was mainly constructed in the thirteenth, but modernised in the
nineteenth century. The back of it should be surveyed from the Piazza
dell' Abbadia, where it is frequently mistaken by tourists and other
casual persons (including one English writer of repute!) for a Gothic
abbey; the name of the piazza really refers to San Donato, which was
formerly an abbey and the family church of the Salimbeni, as San
Cristofano was that of their rivals, the Tolomei. The great Ghibelline
family that played so turbulent a part in the early history of Siena
gradually died out; "to-day," wrote Bargagli, in the latter part of the
Cinquecento, "it is utterly extinguished; besides their arms and their
palaces, nought else remains of them save the name." We may take their
palace as the background for two of the best and most beautiful love
stories of old Siena. In one, Anselmo di Messer Salimbene Salimbeni, one
of the richest young nobles of the city, is secretly enamoured of
Angelica Montanini, whose brother Carlo is the last of a noble but now
ruined house, between which and the Salimbeni there is a deadly feud.
Thrown into prison on a trumped-up charge of plotting against the
popular regime, a price is set upon Carlo's life; he refuses to pay,
lest his sister should be reduced to beggary, and is about to perish on
the scaffold when Anselmo steps in and pays the fine to excess. The
expedient by which Carlo and Angelica attempt to repay their debt to
Anselmo is somewhat repugnant to our modern code of ethics or
conventions--it appears again in the underplot of Thomas Heywood's _A
Woman Killed with Kindness_--but it ends in the marriage of Anselmo and
Angelica in San Donato to the great delight of all the city. In the
other story, Ippolito Saracini has fallen passionately in love with
Cangenova, the youngest of the three orphan daughters of Messer Reame
Salimbeni, and his love is returned. But the mother, anxious first to
marry her other daughters, will not suffer his addresses, and keeps
Cangenova in strict seclusion. Pretending to leave Siena as a pilgrim to
St James of Compostella, Ippolito lurks in a little house near San
Lorenzo, which is next door to the garden in which the lady and her
daughters walk. He watches Cangenova at sunrise, watering her lilies and
violets in the balcony or playing with the little goldfinch that has its
nest in the mulberry tree outside her window. Then one night he takes
advantage of her mother's absence to climb the tree, and draws her to
the window by frightening her goldfinch. A sudden fright brings their
meeting to a premature end, and presently she is dying. Disguised as a
pilgrim, Ippolito visits her on her death-bed, and they interchange
professions of unalterable love; he joins her funeral procession as a
member of one of the confraternities, carrying a torch, and falls dead
in San Francesco when the tomb is closed.[157]
In the Via delle Belle Arti, next to the picture gallery which has
already been described, is the Biblioteca Comunale, once the
meeting-place of the most famous of the Sienese academies--the
_Intronati_. Among its treasures are two of the original letters sent by
St Catherine from Rome to Stefano Maconi; they are not, however, in her
own handwriting but appear, from internal evidence, to have been
dictated by her to Barduccio Canigiani.
Further on in the Via Cavour, to the left, is the exquisite little early
Renaissance church of Sta. Maria delle Nevi, built shortly after 1470
for Giovanni de' Cinughi, Bishop of Pienza, probably from the designs of
Francesco di Giorgio. The altar-piece, representing Our Lady as Queen of
the Snows, with a predella illustrating the legend of the building of
Sta. Maria Maggiore at Rome, was painted by Matteo di Giovanni in 1477;
a most poetically conceived work and one of the most beautiful pictures
of the Sienese Quattrocento. This part of the Terzo di Camollia was
originally the famous Poggio Malavolti, where that great family had
their towers and houses in a regular fortress as far as the recently
demolished convent of the Cappuccine; it was surrounded with walls and
had a gate near where Sta. Maria delle Nevi now stands.
On the right the steep and picturesque Via Vallerozzi leads down the
Costa d'Ovile, the scene of the massacre of 1371, to the Porta Ovile.
Half way down is the oratory of San Rocco, the church of the Contrada of
the Lupa, with frescoes by Manetti and Rustichino. The Fonte Nuova, a
little off the street to the left, was built by Tino di Camaino in the
fourteenth century. In the Via Garibaldi, on the way to the railway
station, is the _Casa della Consuma_, the palace in which the _brigata
spendereccia_, the extravagant young club of Sienese nobles recorded by
Dante in canto xxix. of the _Inferno_, ran through their fortunes. There
has been much throwing about of brains upon the question whether this
notorious _brigata spendereccia_ is, or is not, to be identified with
the _brigata nobile e cortese_ of which Folgore da San Gimignano sung,
and whether Dante's "Niccolò who first discovered the rich usage of the
clove"--who is usually said to have been either a Salimbeni or a
Buonsignori--is the Niccolò di Nisi to whom Folgore dedicated his
_corona_. However that may be, the present aspect of the _Casa della
Consuma_ is prosaic and modern. In the same street is the oratory of the
Brotherhood of St Sebastian, for which Bazzi painted that most wonderful
of banners now in the Uffizi. It has early seventeenth century frescoes,
illustrating the life of the martyr.
Following up the Via Camollia towards the gate, we have on the right the
Campansi, a former convent of Franciscan nuns, now a poor-house. Most of
its artistic treasures have been removed to the picture gallery, but a
certain number of frescoes have been preserved. In the cloisters is a
large Assumption, mingling Sienese and Umbrian influences, the work of
Matteo Balducci and (according to Mr Berenson) in part of Pietro di
Domenico. On the first floor are: an Annunciation by Sano di Pietro; a
Madonna and Child with St Anne, attended by the Magdalene and St Ursula
(poetical in conception, but rather poorly executed) by Beccafumi; a
Resurrection by Benvenuto di Giovanni. From a window in the women's
department a beautiful view is obtained of San Francesco.
The Madonna of Fontegiusta was built in 1479, as a thanks-offering for
the victory of Poggio Imperiale, by Francesco Fedeli and Giacomo di
Giovanni of Como. Over the outer portal is a beautiful Madonna and Child
with Angels, of 1489, by Neroccio Landi. In the sixteenth century the
fashionable thing was to hear vespers in this church on Sunday
afternoons. In Pietro Fortini's _Novelle de' Novizi_, his five "right
honest but most facetious ladies" attend vespers here, and at the holy
water basin (the work still of Pacchia's father, Giovanni delle
Bombarde) they join company with their "two winsome youths, most
disposed to the service of love," and walk out with them in the cool as
far as the Palazzo de' Diavoli.[158] The marble high altar, with the
Pietà and exquisitely worked setting, is the masterpiece of Lorenzo di
Mariano, executed in 1517 and, according to the legend, sent to Rome on
mules for the edification of Leo X. The frescoed Assumption, in the
lunette above the altar, is by Girolamo di Benvenuto. On the right wall
is a Coronation of the Madonna by Fungai. On the left wall is the fresco
of the Sibyl revealing the mystery of the Incarnation to Augustus, by
Baldassare Peruzzi. It has been damaged and badly restored, and is one
of the painter's latest and less satisfactory works, showing a mannered
and unsuccessful attempt to imitate the style of Michelangelo. The
Madonna commending Siena to her Divine Son is by Bazzi's pupil and
son-in-law, Il Riccio. The shield and whalebones over the door are said
by tradition to have been sent here as a votive offering by Christopher
Columbus.
The Porta Camollia bears the famous and characteristic Sienese greeting
to all that enter: _Cor magis tibi Sena pandit_, "Siena opens to thee
her heart more than her gate." When Pius II., on January 31st, 1460,
returned to Siena from the fruitless congress at Mantua, he passed
through this gate and found all the streets as far as the Duomo
gorgeously decorated. Inside the gate there was a structure to look like
a Paradise with a choir of boys dressed as angels; when the Pope drew
near, one of them descended from his place and sung so sweetly,
commending the city to him, that Pius burst into tears. When Charles
VIII. of France entered here in May 1495, accompanied by the Signoria
who had met him at the Antiporto, he had a similar reception, a boy
dressed to represent the Madonna as Queen of the city singing a Latin
welcome to the sound of music. The present gate was built in 1604, in
honour of the Grand Duke Ferdinand I., from the design of Alessandro
Casolani.
Outside the gate is the Piazza d'Armi or Prato di Camollia, where the
Spanish soldiers mustered in 1552 on the surrender of the citadel. Here
is the column that marks the place where Enea Silvio Piccolomini
introduced the Emperor to his bride, Leonora of Portugal. The Antiporto
or Portone was many times destroyed and rebuilt, the present structure
dating from the seventeenth century. A short way further on, on the road
towards Florence, is the _Palatium Turcorum_, the palace of the Turchi
(a family of the Noveschi who were connected with the Piccolomini), a
red brick structure with a fine tower. It has been popularly called,
from the fifteenth century downwards, the Palazzo de' Diavoli. The
chapel is a fine piece of Renaissance architecture by Antonio Federighi,
with a frieze somewhat recalling that of the chapel of the Campo; in the
interior are tasteful terra-cotta mouldings and an Assumption with a
multitude of Angels, St Jerome and St Thomas--like a Sienese picture of
the Quattrocento in terra-cotta--also by Federighi. It was little beyond
this palace that the Sienese pursued the routed Florentines and
_papalini_ in 1526--but they fled for ten miles without stopping.
We retrace our steps through the Porta Camollia to the Lizza, that
favourite promenade of the Sienese which now covers the site of Don
Diego's citadel, where the nightingales are loud at evening among the
trees at the entrance to Santa Barbara, the Medicean fortress of Duke
Cosimo thrown open to the citizens by an Austrian Grand Duke. The church
of San Stefano, on the Lizza, contains over the high altar the
masterpiece of St Catherine's painter disciple, the reformer Andrea di
Vanni, painted about 1400. It is a typical Sienese picture, but of no
surpassing merit; the Madonna and Child are enthroned in the central
panel, with the Annunciation above; at the sides are the Baptist and St
Bartholomew, St Stephen and St James, with the four Evangelists above
them and other saints in the _cuspidi_ and pinnacles. The faces of the
virgin martyrs have something of the characteristic Sienese gentle
sweetness. The predella is obviously later, being probably the work of
Giovanni di Paolo.
[Illustration: _At the older circuit of the walls_]
THE FAMILY OF POPE PIUS THE SECOND
SILVIO PICCOLOMINI
d. 1450,
m. Vittoria Forteguerri,
d. 1454.
|
+----------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+
| | |
ENEA SILVIO LAODAMIA, CATERINA,
(POPE PIUS II.), m. Francesco Todeschini. m. Bartolommeo
1405-1464. | Guglielmi.
| |
+----------------------+------------------+----------+------+-----------------+ |
| | | | | |
ANTONIO FRANCESCO ANDREA, MONTANINA, GIACOMO, ANTONIA,
(Duke of Amalfi, etc.) (POPE PIUS III.) m. Agnese Farnese. m. Lorenzo m. (1) Camilla m. Bartolommeo Pieri
d. 1493, 1439-1503. | Buoninsegni. Monaldeschi, (Piccolomini delle
m. (1) Maria d'Aragona, | (2) Cristofora Papesse).
(2) Maria di Marino | Colonna. |
Marzano. | | |
| +--------------+---------+--+-------------+-----------+ +----------+ |
| | | | | | | |
ALFONSO, PIER FRANCESCO, GIOVANNI MONTANINA, VITTORIA CATERINA, ENEA SILVIO.
m. Giovanna m. Francesca (Cardinal m. Sallustio m. Borghese m. Lattanzio m. Maddalena |
d'Aragona. Savelli. Archbishop Bandini. Petrucci. Tolomei. Marescotti. |
| | of Siena), | | |
| | 1475-1537. | | |
| | | | |
ALFONSO, | +--------+-----------+ ANTONIO, |
(Duke of Amalfi, | | | m. Elena Sforza. |
Captain-General of | MARIO, d. 1558, FRANCESCO | |
the Sienese), | m. Eufrasia (Archbishop of | |
m. Costanza d'Avalos. | Accarigi. Siena), d. 1588. VITTORIA.=======ENEA, d. 1555.
| | | |
| | +-----+-------------+----------------+ +--------+----------+
| | | | | | |
| | GERMANICO SALLUSTIO, BERENICE, SILVIO. ASCANIO
INNIGO, d. 1566.=====SILVIA. (titular m. Cecilia m. Alfonso Bardi | (Archbishop
| Archbishop of Bufalini. (whose descendants OTTAVIO PICCOLOMINI of Siena),
COSTANZA, d. 1610 Corinth), d. 1569. took the name of D'ARAGONA Duke of d. 1597.
Bandini-Piccolomini). Amalfi, d. 1656.