Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/851

 SIENA

779

SIENA

Siena, (Senensis) Archdiocese of, in Tuscany (Central Italy). The city is situated on three gently- swelling hills. The Public Library was donated by Archdeacon Bandini (1663). The Academy of Fine Arts, the Museum of the Cathedral, and the different churches of the city, illustrate almost completely the history of art in Siena; in no other city had art, es- pecially painting, a more local character, and nowhere else did it remain so conservative. Gothic archi- tecture produced here its most excellent monuments, both ecclesiastical and in civic buildings; and the Sienese architects laboured beyond the confines of their state (e. g. the cathedral of Orvieto). Sculp- ture received its first impulse from Nicolo and Giovanni Pisani, whose Sienese disciples carved the decorations of the fagade of Orvieto cathedral. The most renowned sculptors of the fifteenth centurj' were Jacopo della Querela (1374-1438), one of the pioneers of the Renaissance; Lorenzo di Pietro; Antonio Federighi; Francesco di Giorgio (also an architect); Giacomo Cozzarelli; and Lorenzo Mari- ano. Sculpture in wood is represented by the brothers Antonio and Giovanni Barili, Bartoloiuco Neroni, and others. In painting Siena possessed in Duccio an artist who greatly surpassed his con- temporary Cimabue of Florence, both for grace and in accuracy of design. Nevertheless, art developed and was perfected in Florence more rapidly than in Siena. Simone Martini (1285-1344), immortalized by Petrarca, and a citizen of Siena, bears com- parison with Giotto. Lippo Memmi (also a minia- turist), Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti, imitated with facility the grandiose composition of the school of Giotto. But Bcrtolo di Fredi (1330-141j; Taddeo de Bartolo (1360^1422); and the fifteenth century painters, Domenico di Bartolo, Sano di Pietro, Vecchietta, Matteo, and Benvenuto di Giovanni, compared with the Florentines, seem al- most medieval. Siena therefore turned anew to Florentine, Lombard, or Venetian painters, under whom the ancient fame of the city revived, especially in the works of Bernardino Fungai, Girolanio della Pacchia, and others. The most renowned n'i)n'sciita- tives of the Renais.sance in Siena are Balda.'^sare Peruzzi, better known as the architect of the Biisilica of San Pietro, Giovanni Antonio Bazzi, and II Sodoma (1477-1549), a rival of Raphael. With Domenico Beccafumi (1486-1551) begins the decadence. In the nineteenth century Paolo Franchi founded a school of painters closely related to the "Nazarenes" (a group of German painters of the early nineteenth century, who imitated the Italians of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries); the chapel of the Istituto di Santa Teresa gives a good idea of their art.

The cathedral of Siena is said to occupy the site of a temi)le of Minerva. The present building was begun in the early thirteenth century; the cupola was finished in 1464. But in 1339 it was decided to so enlarge the cathedral that the area then occupied by the nave should form the transepts of the new building. In fact the construction of the longitudinal nave, now in part incorporated in the Opera del Duomo, was actually commenced. Though the pes- tilence of 1348 compelled the citizens to desist from this plan, they determined to complete in a worthy manner the original design. As it stands the build- ing is about 292 ft. long and 80 ft. wide— 168 ft. in the transepts. The facade is decorated with bands of red, white, and black marble, tricuspidal, and richly adorned with sculptures (restored in 1869) and with mosaics (renewed in 1878). In the interior the pavement is of admirable marble mosaic — the work of masters of the fifteenth century, which has been for the most part renewed. The pulpit, entirely in relief, is the work of Nicol6 Pisano and his pupils; the high altar is by Petruzzi, the

bronze tabernacle by Vecchietta, and the carvings of the choir by the brothers Barili. The chapel of San Giovanni contains a statue of the saint by Donatello, besides statues by other sculptors, and frescoes by Pinturicchio. Scattered through the in- terior of the cathedral are statues of Sienese popes and the tombs of the bishops of Siena. The library of the cathedral possesses ancient choir-books an/i other manuscripts, and is adorned throughout with frescoes by Pinturicchio representing scenes from the life of Pius II— the gift of Pius III. In the centre of the library is the celebrated group of the Three Graces, presented by Pius II. In the Opera del

Interior of the Cathedral op Siena XII-XIV Century

Duomo are preserved the remains of the exterior sculptures and of the pavement of the cathedral, as well as paintings and sacred tapestries. In the Hospital of Sta Maria della Scala (thirteenth cen- tury) the church and the ■pellegrinaro (a large sick room) with frescoes by Donienico di Bartolo are noteworthy; San Agostino possesses pictures and frescoes by Perugino, Sodoma, Matteo di Giovanni, and others. Beneath the choir of the cathedral is the ancient baptistery, now the parish Church of San Giovanni, with its remarkable font, ornamented with sculptures by Querela, Donatello, and Ghiberti. In Santa Maria del Carmine the cloisters and the Chapel of the Sacrament are particularly interesting. The Oratory of San Bernardino contains works of the principal Sienese artists, especially of Sodoma and Beccafumi. The house of St. Catherine of Siena (Benincasa) has been transformed into a number of chapels, which centuries have vied in adorning. San Domenico (1293) possesses pictures by Sodoma, Fungai, Vanni, and others, and a tabernacle by Benedetto da Maiano. The little church of Fon- teguista has frescoes by Fungai, Petruzzi, and Lorenzo di Mariano. Scattered throughout the other churches are works of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Outside of the city is the Convento dell' Osservanza, with majolicas by Andrea della Robbia and paintings