Table Of ContentISBN 978-88-8347-667-9
© 2013
Opera Laboratori Fiorentini - Civita Group
Sillabe s.r.l.
www.sillabe.it - [email protected]
Management: Maddalena Paola Winspeare
Design: Laura Belforte
Copy editing: Giulia Bastianelli
Translation: Christine Maclellan for Scriptum, Rome
Photo credits: Archivio fotografico dell'Opera della Metropolitana: figs. 1, 2, 4,
16-19, 28, 31, 32-34, 36, 48-51, 63, 69, 71-72, 74-87, 95, 98,101, 103,107,109,
116-118, 120, 127-128, 133, 135-138, 140, 142-147, 149-152, 166, 168-171,
176, 178, 181; Siena, Fondazione Monte dei Paschi di Siena: fig. 20; ©Bruno
Bruchi, Siena: cover, figs. 3, 5, 8-9, 11-15, 21-25, 27, 29-30, 38, 42-43, 53, 61,
67, 73,102,108,110, 122-126, 129-132, 141,148, 153,167, 177,180, back
cover; ©Andrea e Fabio Lensini, Siena: figs. 6-7, 10, 26, 39-41, 44-47, 52, 54-60,
62, 64-66, 70, 88-94, 96-97, 99-100, 104-106, 111-115, 119, 121, 134,139, 154-
163, 165, 172-175, 179; ©Antonio Quattrone, Firenze: fig. 68; ©Massimo Sestini,
Firenze: foreword, figs. 35, 37, 164.
Marilena Caciorgna
SIENA
CATHEDRAL
CRYPT
BAPTISTERY
s i 1 1 a b e
SIENA
OPERA DELLA METROPOLITANA
An Invitation
The Duomo of Siena, one of the oldest and most splendid cathedrals in Europe, a wondrous masterpiece
of art and architecture, is the expression of an extraordinary chapter of faith, in which the overall
impression and every detail are an invitation to come into the Church, God's people journeying through
history, and at times of tension, towards the sanctity and beatific vision of God.
This profound fact, which risks being overlooked on a hurried visit, is of inestimable value, not only in
order to understand the Christian roots of our culture, but also to be enriched with an ideal conception
of life with its own hierarchy of values that have positively guided the existence of so many generations.
Observant visitors will find themselves immersed in a universe of symbols, a multitude of works of art of
every kind, material and substance; it is therefore important to grasp the unitary intention that has guided
the artists who have, in turn, worked in the Cathedral workshops. Here the key to interpreting every figu
rative and constructive effort lies precisely in the search for absolute beauty, which attempts, as far as
possible, to seek correspondence with the great Mystery of Christianity: the Absolute, God made flesh,
which therefore becomes visible and tangible. Every work of art is a search for both signs of the divine
in creation and its transfiguration into the final destiny of eternity.
The dedication of the cathedral to the Virgin Mary thus emerges in all its significance: Mary gives flesh to
the Son of God, but is finally assumed into heaven by Him, as contemplation of Duccio's splendid oculus
reveals. The mystery inevitably unfolds through the annihilation of the divine on the Cross (wonderfully
frescoed in the Crypt), to attain the Kingdom of Heaven where Christ and the Madonna are enthroned
among angels and saints, depicted in Duccio's Maesta, now housed in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo.
The invitation that the philosophers, prophets, sybils and saints, as well as the emperors and popes,
have extended to visitors down through the ages has been to become involved in the story of salvation
through the Church today. This occurs in the key places of the cathedral complex: the baptismal font,
where immersion in the salvational event is celebrated, and the altar, where the sacrifice of Christ is
perpetuated to bring to completion the transfiguration of humanity through assimilation with his Body.
Each individual's response to this invitation will clearly be individual; however, if visitors are to have an
enriching encounter and an authentic dialogue with the works of art, it is essential to adopt an open and
enquiring approach.
It is not so much how you enter, as how you leave the Duomo of Siena that counts: even those who
marvel just a little or feel charmed, provoked or made curious will have reaped rewards for their life.
t Antonio Buoncristiani
Archbishop of Siena
An itinerary
The Opera della Metropolitana di Siena is the cathedral works organization set up in the 12th century to build
the cathedral. Once built, the cathedral works continued over the centuries to maintain, preserve, restore and
embellish the building with the marvellous works of art to be seen in and around it.
A fortunate chain of circumstances, from the city's great wealth to the fact that Siena was the birthplace of
many popes, has yielded surprising results and made our cathedral one of the most illustrious in Europe for
the works of art it houses and for its role in the history of western culture.
In the past decade, the Opera della Metropolitana di Siena has promoted a notable series of publications at
an intense rate of production that benefit from the highest quality research. The focus has been on individual
sectors (painting, sculpture, the crypt etc.) with a marked openness to all forms of research, from in-depth
historic and artistic investigation to iconographic research, and a study of the documents.
It seemed an appropriate moment to offer an overall view of our cathedral complex and therefore to com
bine in a single work the 'old' duomo, the 'new' duomo with the facciatone, the baptistery, and the most
recent acquisitions, such as the walkway below the roof and the 'Crypt'.
Virginis temp/um gathers together in one concise volume the fruit of the most up-to-date research carried
out by the author and other experts to offer readers for the first time a guide that is easy to consult and that
illustrates the cathedral complex in its entirety.
At the same time, the book marks a departure from our other publications in that the author connects the
illustration of the actual itinerary through the cathedral complex of Siena in all its magnificence to this guide
by organizing it into themes with short chapters and evocative titles. The itinerary therefore takes us from the
work of art, providing historical and artistic information, but pauses to delve into the deeper impulses of the
human spirit which have determined such external beauty. Indeed, over the centuries the contemplation of the
Scriptures and the analysis of classical, mediaeval and humanist sources, through the great masters, patrons
and cultivated creators of the artistic projects, have given rise to works of art that only appear to be decora
tive, but are instead full of allegorical meanings which the author has attempted to decipher. Even the most
passionate connoisseur will discover a new way of interpreting art history, accompanied by rigorous research
that avoids the pitfalls of iconological interpretations, to discover the inner beauty of the 'house of the Virgin',
the temple of Mary, the 'true' patron saint of the city of Siena: the faith of the Sienese people in the Virgin Mary
is, without a doubt, the inspirational motif of the entire cathedral complex.
Mario Lorenzoni
Rector
Opera della Metropolitana di Siena
Contents
9 CATHEDRAL
11 The origins
11 The dedication to Saint Mary of the Assumption
11 The Temple of Minerva
11 The construction of the cathedral
14 The apron of the cathedral
14 The wolves on the apron
15 Two large amphorae in the pavement of the apron: me/ et fel
15 Thefacade
18 The construction
18 The marble of the facade
19 Siena adorned with its monogram
19 The life of the Virgin, workshop of Giovanni Pisano
19 lanua coeli, the central portal
21 The Door of the Glorification of Mary
21 The statues of the prophets
22 The 'prophetesses'
23 The Evangelists
23 The philosophers: Aristotle and Plato
25 The gables
26 The left side
26 The magic square
26 Giovanni Pisano's burial place
27 The OPA escutcheon
28 The right side
28 The bell-tower
29 The bells
29 The Door of Forgiveness
29 The Madonna of Forgiveness and the Door of Gratitude
32 The dome
32 The entrance to the cathedral
32 The Jubilee of 1300
32 Under the eaves
38 The interior
40 Facade interior
43 The most chaste Temple of the Virgin
44 The pavement. Hermes and the Sibyls
44 The pavement: an aesthetic and symbolic itinerary
44 Technique
44 Hermes Trismegistus. The birth ab aetemo of the Son by the Father
47 The Sibyls
47 The Cumaean Sibyl. "A new generation descends from the heavens"
47 The Hellespontine Sibyl. The veil of the temple is tom in two and the earth is enveloped
in darkness
50 "Herod and Pi/ate became friends": the dog I wolf and the lion in a sign of friendship
51 The Tiburtine Sibyl and the 'happy Mother'
52 The nave
52 The series of popes and emperors
52 Consummatum est: Federighi's holy water fonts and salvation from original sin
57 The pavement in the nave
57 The wolf suckling the twins Romulus and Remus in front of the fig tree
57 "Climb the steep mountain". The Mount of Wisdom by Pinturicchio
60 The Wheel of Fortune and the philosophers of the ancient world
62 The altarpieces
62 The series along the south aisle
63 The series in the north aisle
65 The presbytery of the cathedral
67 The Piccolomini Chapel
67 Michelangelo and Siena
71 The Piccolomini Library
71 The temple of Pius II and Pius Ill
72 The painted biography of Pius II 133 The choir and the apse
73 Episodes in the life of Pius II 134 Oculus cordis. The stained-glass window by Duccio di
73 Scene five. The noblewomen of Siena accompany Buoninsegna
Eleanor of Aragon 135 The cardinal virtues and misericordia
76 The portraits of Pinturicchio and Raphael 136 The tarsias by Fra Giovanni da Verona
81 Selene, Proserpina and the Piccolomini moon 138 The 'Facciatone' in Piazza Jacopo della Quercia
82 The floor of the Library
83 The three Graces
83 The anthem books of the Duomo of Siena 141 CRYPT
85 The Chapel of Saint John the Baptist 142 The discovery
85 The relic of Saint John the Baptist's right arm 142 The wall paintings
85 The construction
87 The painted biography of John the Baptist by Pinturicchio 142 Stories from the Old Testament
88 Ego vox clamantis in deserto. Saint John the Baptist 143 The childhood of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels
by Donatello 147 The childhood of Jesus in the Apocryphal Gospels
89 The pozzetto de/ Sabata Santo. The myth of Hercules 149 The story of the Passion
90 The pavement in the north transept 153 "The mother rushes up the steps and clutches her son
to her". The Madonna of the stairs in the crypt
90 The expulsion of Herod 153 The 'old foundry'
91 The Slaughter of the Innocents
91 The story of Judith
95 The north transept 155 BAPTISTERY
95 The funerary monument for the heart of Grand Master 157 The construction of the baptistery
Marc'Antonio Zondadari
97 Funerary Monument of Cardinal Petroni 157 The baptismal font
97 Donatello: tombstone of Bishop Giovann di Bartolomeo 160 Episodes from the life of Saint John the Baptist
Pecci 162 The apse
97 Saint Ansanus baptises the people of Siena by 164 The vaults and the apostles
Francesco Vanni
98 The portrait of the historian Giugurta Tommasi 166 The Articles of Faith
98 Ghirlandaio in the Duomo of Siena 166 The Articles in the first bay
99 The pulpit by Nicola Pisano 170 The Articles in the second bay
103 The Liberal Arts and Philosophy 172 The Articles in the third bay
104 The Theological and Cardinal Virtues 173 The decoration in the large lunette on the left
105 The Prophets, Virgil and the Sibyl, and the Evangelists 174 The decoration in the large lunette on the right
105 Ego sum vitis vera. The birth of the Ecclesia from Christ
175 From the baptistery back to the cathedral
108 The inside of the dome
175 The Assumption of the Virgin by Vecchietta
108 'Heaven's Dome' and the 'Pantheon' of the Sienese
saints
177 Bibliography
110 The Montaperti masts
110 The pavement in the hexagon below the dome
186 The sculptures
and in the presbytery
110 The pavement in the hexagon below the dome 188 The paintings
112 Moses strikes water from the rock 190 The pavement
113 Scenes from the life of Moses on Sinai
113 David the psalmist between David the slingsman and
Goliath falling backwards; Joshua defeats the five kings
of the Amorites; Samson chastising the Philistines
117 Abraham's sacrifice
118 The altar
118 Panis vivus: the high altar
119 The angels on the altar
121 The Chapel of the Madonna of the Vow
121 Maria mater gratiae, mater misericordiae
125 The pavement in the south transept
125 The seven ages of man
127 "Then we shall see face to face:" Religion and the
Theological Virtues
128 The story of Jephthah
129 The death of Absalom
130 Emperor Sigismund
131 The south transept
131 The ex voto bust of Bernardino Perfetti
131 The monuments to the popes
131 The altarpieces in the south transept
