The proportion of churches in
Siena that are visitable is very low, considering. The three big churches of
the Franciscan,
Dominican and Servite orders and the Duomo are reliable, and there is a strip of little old
churches kept open
along the main route into town from the Camolia gate.
Of the rest the ones that are regularly open can be counted on one hand. The
largely unvisitables include the churches of the other two major
mendicant orders, the Carmelites and the Augustinian Hermits. The situation is not helped at all by the seventeen contrade, the areas that compete in the palio horse races, owning two or three churches or oratories each, and only opening them for special local occasions; or using them as museums or to house horses at palio time. And if your concept of a museum is of a place open to the public, think again, in these cases. It's all very frustrating, especially with regard to the size and importance of Sant'Agostino, San Giorgio, Santo Spirito, San Niccolò al Carmine, San Pietro a Ovile and San Girolamo, to name just six. Paragraphs about the interiors of churches that I haven't been inside are labelled 'unvisited'. |
History Built with locally-provided funds from around 1657, to designs by Giacomo Franchini, (or by Pietro Augusto Montini in 1722/3) with stucco decoration by Pietro d'Austo Montini. Deconsecrated in 1813 the oratory became an armoury but is now used by the chiociolla (snail) contrada as their horse house, where the horse chosen for the palio is kept for the three days before the race. This had been the contrada's oratory, until it moved to the oratory of Santi Pietro e Paulo, along with the art and fittings from here, which included an icon of the Virgin painted by Jacopo di Mino del Pellicciaio. Façade On the façade, a stucco God the Father with Angels is set above a repainted fresco of the Virgin and Child painted in 1742 by Francesco Feliciati. Below this is a fresco of a snail. The well in front of the church, the Pozzo di S. Marco (well of Saint Mark) dates from 1522. The church in art Patrick Hamilton's watercolour of 1981 called The Old Church (see right) is plainly this one. Opening times Rarely |
Opening times Rarely
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Lost art
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The Osservanza |
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History Founded in 1423 by Saint Bernardino in an attempt to return to the original Franciscan rule (or Observance) which he thought had become corrupt. The land was given in 1404 by the hospital of Santa Maria della Scala. The church was consecrated in 1451 by the Archbishop Niccolò Piccolomini, with building work continuing from 1476-90, probably by Francesco di Giorgio Martini and later Giacomo Cozzarelli. These buildings where damaged during the Siege of Siena in 1554 and baroque rebuilding resulted. After restoration between 1922 and 1932 the church suffered serious damage from American bombs on 23rd January 1944, making it the only church suffering such damage in Siena. Direct hits brought the roof and vaulting down and destroyed the cupola 'almost entirely'. Rebuilding followed, attempting to return the church to how it looked in the late 15th century. The church was rededicated and reopened in 1949 Interior More than a touch of Brunelleschi, with three stout pillars each side, separating the nave from the four side chapels each side with round pietra serena arches. A large detached fresco and its sinopia are just visible either side of the apse, behind the panelled and benched choir with its dome. The fresco looks like an Enthroned Virgin. The church has works by Andrea della Robbia - an Annunciation pair of statues either side of the choir arch and a Coronation of the Virgin (see right) in the second chapel on the left, plus two tondi in the counter-façade, depicting San Ludovico di Tolosa and San Bonaventura. Also a triptych once ascribed to the Master of the Osservanza (and the label attached still says so), but this anonymous master was in 2010 identified as the young Sano di Pietro, thereby explaining our lack of knowledge of his early career. He was originally called The Master of the Osservanza Triptych after this very painting. It depicts the Virgin and Child with Saints Ambrose and Jerome, is dated 1436, (fourth chapel on the right) and was commissioned by merchant Manno di Orlando for his chapel in San Maurizio. Also by Sano di Pietro here is the Virgin and Child with Saints Jerome and Bernardino painted a little later (third chapel on the right) and a Virgin and Child with Angels panel (first chapel on the left). A polyptych by Andrea di Bartolo (part of a dismembered work) depicting eight saints including, on the main register, Saints John the Baptist, Francis of Assisi, Peter and John the Evangelist (1413) (fourth chapel on the left). In the first chapel on right is a detached damaged fresco of The Crucifixion by Bartolommeo Neroni, called il Riccio, who also painted the same subject, with saints, on a panel in the third chapel on the left. In the crypt, with its reverse orientation to the church, are tombs of the Petrucci family, including the remains of Pandolfo. Cloisters not visited There are three cloisters, the largest dates back to the last quarter of the 17th century, with an 18th-century well in the centre. The oldest is the southern cloister, currently without its southern wing, which is overlooked by the Pandolfo loggia. The refectory not visited In the refectory there is a large canvas by Francesco Franci of The Last Supper from 1710. On the altar of the sacristy there is a late 15th/early 16th century polychrome terracotta sculptural group depicting The Lamentation by Giacomo Cozzarelli . Next door to the sacristy there is the museum dedicated to Aurelio Castelli, which houses various works. These include the head of a processional Crucifix made by Lando di Pietro in 1388 and belonging to the Sienese Compagna di San Domenico. It came here when that order was suppressed in 1785 and used to be over the high altar. Only fragments remain following an allied bombardment in 1944. The destruction revealed a parchment strip signed by the artist in 1338 asking us to worship the son of God, not the wood, and the reliquary of Saint Bernardino of Siena (mid- 15th century). Lost art A Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata by Taddeo di Bartolo from c.1405, now in the Pinacoteca, was probably painted for this church, it was certainly in the here by the mid 19th century. The Dittica dell'Osservanza (see below) by Paolo di Giovanni Fei is in the Pinacoteca. As is a cut-down Annunciation panel by Martino di Bartolommeo. Also panels by the Master of the Osservanza/Sano di Pietro, including San Bernardino and Two Angels. A high altarpiece depicting the Assumption, probably commissioned by Bernardino himself, from Sassetta, which was lost in the Berlin Flakturm fire in 1945. (See b&w photo right). Christ Stripped of His Garments by Francesco di Giorgio Martini is now in the Pinacoteca (no.428). Opening times 08.30 - 12.30 & 15.30 - 18.00 (Summer 19.30)
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History An oratory of the 15th century, the seat of the Compagnia di Santa Maria degli Angele della Veste Nera, built on the site where Saint Bernardino Albizzeschi preached, next to San Francesco. His sermons, which could last up to three hours, became so popular that they had to be moved to the Campo because of the crowds. Appropriately enough these sermons often used mentions of the altarpieces and frescoes in Siena. Such was his preaching command that audiences reached 30 thousand, it is said, despite his having lost all of his teeth by the age of 40. Following Saint Bernardino's canonisation in 1450 the confraternity added his name to their list of saints they specially venerated, and decided to decorate their oratory in his honour. But it took them a while, before they commissioned the three artists mentioned below, as mentioned in a document of 1518. The travertine portal is dated 1574. Interior The ground floor (entrance) chapel has scenes from The Life of San Bernardino painted in the 17th century by Ventura Salimbeni, Rutilio and Domenico Manetti, Crescenzio Gambarelli, Bernardino Mei and Deifebo Burbarini, a pupil of Raffaello Vanni. The ceiling fresco with a view of Siena, Arcangelo Salimbeni's The Virgin Protecting Siena with Saints Bernardino and Catherine was completed in 1580 by Francesco Vanni. In the oratory upstairs (see below right) the carpentry is the work of by Ventura Turapilli (after 1496), who later became capomaestro at the Duomo. It has fourteen large frescoes, looking harmonious and bright, of the Life of the Virgin. Sodoma painted the Presentation middle left, the Visitation end right, the Assumption first right over the door, and the Coronation on the back wall. Sodoma's pupil Beccafumi painted the Marriage last left and Assumption middle right, as well as the Virgin and Saints, with Saint Bernardino altarpiece, flanked by an Annunciation by Girolamo del Pacchia. These were painted between 1496 and 1518, with Beccafumi's Visitation and Assumption dating to 1525-9, and his altarpiece to 1535-7. There are also saints in the corners, three by Sodoma and one by Pacchia. The Birth, Presentation and Marriage feature a fine cat and two enthusiastic white dogs, respectively. Sodoma was known for being surrounded by beardless youths, from which repute he gained his nickname, but also for having a menagerie of odd animals, including a badger and a crow which he taught to imitate his voice. It's therefore tempting to suggest that these animal presences in his works were his own additions. There's a late-14th-century antiphonal in a glass case at the back, illuminated by Lippo Vanni. The attached Museo Diocesano consists of five small rooms containing religious art from the 13th to 17th centuries, all well-displayed. The collection includes works by Vecchietta, Ambrogio Lorenzetti and Matteo di Giovanni. Lost art The severely cut down Virgin and Child with two Angels panel of 1262 (the Madonna di San Bernardino) now mostly accepted as by Guido da Siena (Guido di Graziano), or Dietisalvi di Speme, (who is known to have collaborated with Guido) was owned by the Compagnia di Santa Maria degli Angeli and kept here. It is now (no.16) in the Pinacoteca. The fact that Guido is not mentioned as an artist until 1278, as well as stylistic issues, cast some doubt on this attribution, however. Saint Anthony and the Miracle of the Mule, Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata and Saint Bernardino Preaching, are predella panels from the altarpiece here, which is till in position, by Domenico Beccafumi, all of them now in the Louvre. Of this altarpiece Vasari says 'he resolved to do it in distemper; and in this way he executed it excellently well, painting in it Our Lady with many Saints. In the predella, which is very beautiful, and painted by him likewise in distemper, he depicted S. Francis receiving the Stigmata; S. Anthony of Padua, who, in order to convert some heretics, performs the miracle of the Ass, which makes obeisance before the sacred Host; and S. Bernardino of Siena, who is preaching to the people of his city on the Piazza de’ Signori.' The panels were removed in the 19th century and were acquired by the Louvre in 1966. Opening times March 1st to October 31st from 1.30pm to 7.00pm (last admission 6.30 pm) but admission is only with an OPA Si Duomo Complex pass. |
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History A church with Romanesque (11th/12th-century) (or even Roman) origins but rebuilt after the earthquake of 1798, when the façade collapsed. The building was shortened at this time, with a neoclassical brick façade added in 1800. The church's cloister was used for commune meetings before the building of the Palazzo Pubblico, as was San Pellegrino, and the Duomo. So it was here, in 1260, after a meeting with Florentine ambassadors, that the Gran Consiglio made the decision to go to battle with the Florentines at Montaperti. which proved to be such a historic victory for the Sienese. Following the subsequent decision to hire German mercenaries Salimbene Salimbeni, who was a banker and founder of the early version of the future Monte dei Paschi, walked home to his nearby palazzo and returned here with the wheelbarrow full of 118,000 florins, an event illustrated in the illumination below (ms. A.IV.5, Siena, 1444).
It is also said that in 1376 Saint
Catherine of Siena forced a reconciliation here between the feuding Maconi and
Tolomei families. This she achieved by going into an ecstatic trance
whilst praying before the altar. |
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San Donato
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Interior unvisited
Opening times Rarely
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San Giacinto Via dei Pispini |
San Giacomo Via di Salicotto |
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Interior
unvisited |
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San Giorgio Via di Pantaneto |
San Giovannino della Staffa Piazetta Virgilio Grassi |
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History Legend has it that the original building on this site was an ancient temple of Jupiter. A 13th century Romanesque church here was rebuilt in the first half of the 16th century. It was dedicated to St John the Baptist, for the lay company of of St. John in Pantaneto. The architect was possibly Giovanni Battista Pelori, a pupil of Baldassarre Peruzzi, who may have been responsible for the initial conception. The brick facade was completed by 1537, but the completion of the body of the church wasn't achieved until the 1590s. Fresco decoration inside was commissioned from 1590 to 1650. The church was consecrated on the 10th of May 1611 by the bishop of Grosseto, Cesare Ugolini. The Contrada del Leocorno has been associated with the church for more than three centuries.
Interior
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History The first Gesuati convent in Siena, founded in 1354 by Francesco di Pietro Porcari. The Gesuati order, which specially venerated Saint Jerome, had been founded by Giovanni Colombini, who was from a Sienese patrician family. The convent was enlarged in the following century, financed by the comune. In 1428 building began on the present church, with the first cloister following in 1469 and the second in1481. In 1552/55 the convent was occupied and very damaged by the Spanish army, but returned to the Gesuati friars shortly after. When the order was suppressed by Clement IX in 1668 it passed to the Vergini Abbandonate (Destitute Girls) and then in 1855 Duke Leopold II gave it to the French order of nuns the Figlie della Carita di San Vincenzo de' Paoli, who are still here. Interior unvisited Black and white striped interior. On the back wall of an antechamber left of high altar is a Coronation of the Virgin by Sano di Pietro, who became the order's go-to artist (see Lost art below). The Virgin is flanked by Saint Jerome and the Beato Giovanni Colombini, the latter being the Sienese founder of the Gesuati order, the former his inspiration - the order's full name was the Frati Gesuati di San Girolamo. Colombini came from a wealthy Sienese family but renounced worldly pleasures at 40, embraced poverty and penitence and later established the order. A monochrome Crucifixion (1448?) by Michele di Matteo. The cloister contains a fresco of The Enthroned Virgin and Child, Two Angels, Saint Jerome and the Blessed Giovanni Colombini by Fra Giuliano da Firenze. An artist much influenced by Ghirlandaio, this is his only known work. Bernardino Fugai painted the frescoes in the surrounding niche. A rare depiction of the somewhat gross Saint Catherine of Siena Drinking the Blood from Christ's Wound (see left) by Francesco Vanni from 1594. Lost art The spectacular spiky-topped Polyptych of the Gesuati (246) (also known as the Polittico del Beato Colombini) (right) by Sano di Pietro, his first independent commission, is in the Pinacoteca, but its predella, dedicated to the life of Saint Jerome, is in the Louvre. It shows the Virgin and Child Adored by the Blessed Giovanni Colombini and six angels. They are flanked by Saints Saint Dominic, Jerome, Augustine, and Francis. In the pinnacles are Saints Cosmas and Damian either side side of an Annunciation pair and topped by a larger Blessing Christ. More saints are on the lateral pillars. It is Sano's earliest known signed work, commissioned in 1439 and completed 1444, when he was nearly 40. It underwent restoration for the 2010 exhibition “From Jacopo della Quercia to Donatello: the Arts in Siena in the early Renaissance”. Sano also painted a Virgin and Child with Saints, with a predella of Episodes from the Lives of Saints Cosmas and Damian (233) in 1446. Opening times Rarely |
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San Girolamo in Campansi Via Campansi |
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History A baroque style church, part of a monastery has been converted to a nursing home (Casa di Riposo) for the elderly. Originally established by a group of Franciscan woman in the late 13th/early14th century. The republic gave them some houses here, a district notorious for prostitutes. Only in the 1420s was a monastery built and in 1473 the nuns obtained permission from Pope Sixtus IV to build an oratory. In 1575 the convent housed some 77 women. Following official recognition by Cardinal Metello Bichi in 1613 it soon became popular amongst the aristocracy for the cloistering of daughters, like Berenice, daughter of Agostino Chigi, who took the vows of the Poor Clares in 1683. Construction of the church began in 1683. It was built perpendicular to the former oratory. The convent was suppressed by Napoleon in 1808, but re-opened in 1816, only to be finally suppressed in 1874. In 1889, it became 'an asylum for abandoned elders' and so has had many modifications over the last two centuries. Interior A wide church, with no aisles and just a pair of side altars in shallow niches. Very baroque but with tastefully dull gilding, with lots of big angels and chunky putti. A lofty nuns' gallery at the back and screens in the wall either side of the high altar. The ceiling has frescoes depicting The Glory of Saint Peter of Alcantara, The Glory of the Virgin,The Glory of Saint Francis, and The Glory of Christ by Giulio Coralli and Michelangelo and Niccolò Ricciolini. The high altarpiece is an 18th-century copy of Domenichino's Communion of Saint Jerome.
The convent
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San Giuseppe Via Giovanni Duprè |
San Leonardo Via di Val di Montone |
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History Mentioned in an 8th century document, and maybe founded even earlier. Present by the 12th century and renovated in the 14th. Then part of a major remodelling of the district by the Piccolomini, then benefiting from the election of Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (1405–64) to the papacy as Pius II in 1458. He sponsored three major projects in the 1460s, the rebuilding of this church, the building of the Logge del Papa next to the church and the Palazzo Piccolomini over the piazza. The appearance of the current church however dates to interior restoration in 1537 (just after San Martino passed to Augustinians from the Observant Congregation of Lecceto) to designs by Giovanni Battista Pelori, a pupil of Baldassare Peruzzi, with a baroque façade of 1613. Interior Aisleless, thick grey pilasters and arches between three altars each side of the nave. Frescoed dome and spandrels over a transept that's taller but not deeper than the side chapels. The barrel-vaulted apse ceiling is decorated with a fresco. The inner façade has a canvas depicting the Immaculate Virgin Protecting the Sienese at the Battle of Camollia by Giovanni di Lorenzo, commissioned by the city commune and signed and dated 1528. It features a detailed battle scene around Siena in its bottom quarter. The third altar on the left has a grand and glowing Nativity of 1522-4 by Domenico Beccafumi, called the Marsili Nativity (see right), set in a marble frame by Lorenzo di Mariano (Il Marrina). It was commissioned by Anastasia Marsilia, the widow of Ugolino di Messer Minoccio (Ugolino Ugolini) and painted whilst Beccafumi was working on the Duomo's pavement. Vasari discussed the Nativity as a milestone in Beccafumi's career, saying that it established his independence from Il Sodoma, his master. Text carved on the front edge of the step in front of the altar table here confirms Anastasia Marsilia as the patron. The third altar on the right has a late (1636) Circumcision by Guido Reni. Guercino's Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew of 1636 is on an altar to the left. It began to deteriorate very quickly and is now so darkened as to be better appreciated in a copy made by Giacinto Campana for Cardinal Girolamo Colonna, Archbishop of Bologna. The Compagnia dei Disciplinati della Madonna commissioned the painting from Guercino for the Mancini chapel, Giulio Mancini having made the Compagnia primary beneficiaries upon his deathin 1632. The high altar has a spectacular ciborium by Giuseppi and Giovanni Antonio Mazzuoli commissioned by the de' Vecchi family A Virgin and Child by Neroccio was recently found here under layers of repainting and restored and unveiled at the Pinacoteca in 2010. Local heretic Brandino was a local religious fanatic, born 1486. Following a dissolute early life and fearing damnation he converted and wandered around Italy. In Rome around Easter 1527 he made various appearances, half-naked and with long tangled hair, condemning Pope Clement VII as a 'bastard of Sodom' and predicting that 'God's wrath will fall upon you and the city!' He was thrown in prison, but the Sack of Rome just two weeks later proved his prophesy correct. He returned to Siena, where following his death in 1554 his body lay exposed for veneration three days in this church.
Lost art
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San Niccolò al Carmine Pian dei Mantellini |
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History The first documented proof of the Carmelites here, and the building of a church dates to 1262. They had moved into and restored a small church dedicated to Saint Nicholas, thereby ingratiating themselves as respecters of ancient structures and local traditions, a not-uncommon tactic of the mendicant orders. The five churches of the main mendicant orders circle Siena. The current church was built for them from the 14th century but given a renaissance remodelling in the next century by Baldassare Peruzzi, who was responsible for the high altar in the Duomo and made a name for himself in Rome for, amongst other buildings, the Palazzo della Farnesina for Sienese banker Agostino Chigi. Interior A tall single nave interior with a pair of altars in the middle either side and a pair more alcoves towards the back. The right wall altar has a stormy Saint Michael and the Fall of the Rebel Angels from c.1528 by Domenico Beccafumi. (His original version, even more mannerist and full of nude angels, was rejected by the monks here. See Lost art below.) The predella is by Stefano Volpi. To its left is an ostentatiously framed fresco fragment of the Virgin from an Annunciation by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, it is sometimes claimed. The right wall alcove is full of an impressive lately-uncovered fresco of The Ascension (see right) damaged and missing its Christ, by Benedetto di Bindo. Not seen: an altar on the right has a venerated icon, the Madonna dei Mantellini (c.1240) which gave its name to the area and street outside. The work goes unmentioned until 1585, when Francesco Vanni made an altarpiece to surround it (called a bildtabernakel) depicting Saints Albert, Stephen, Martin and Catherine of Alexandria in Veneration (1598). Another Byzantine Madonna, the Madonna del Carmine, (see below) is reportedly also to be seen in this church. The left wall altar has a panel of The Ascension by Girolamo del Pacchia with a three panel predella depicting the Annunciation to Joseph, the Flight into Egypt and the Adoration of the Magi. There are some 17th century panels about the place. To the right of the apse is the door to the Chapel of the Sacrament with a painting by Sodoma of God the Father and the Birth of the Virgin which when I visited (September 2016) was away being restored. The sacristy evidently has a polychrome terracotta statue of Saint Sigismund by Giacomo Cozzarelli and an Annunciation by Raffaello Vanni. (A Nativity by Bartolomeo Neroni (Il Riccio), but finished by Arcangelo Salimbeni (1565-79) on the right nave wall. The Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew of 1604, a late work by Alessandro Casolani (he died in 1607), his masterpiece it is said) Lost art A 13th-century Virgin and Child panel by Gilio di Pietro is in the Pinacoteca. Of the large and marvellous Pala del Carmine high altarpiece painted by Pietro Lorenzetti (signed and dated 1329 on the throne base) (see right) the central panel, the Virgin and Child with Saint Nicholas and the Prophet Elijah and the far flanking full-length standing figures of Saints Catherine and Agnes are in the Pinacoteca, with the central-panel-flanking Saint John the Baptist and Elijah panels now in the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena. The impressive predella (depicting episodes from the history of the Carmelite order, including apocryphal Old Testament episodes) and two pinnacles are also in the Pinacoteca. Another pinnacle is in the Yale University Art Gallery and at least one is missing. They depict pairs of apostles. The dispersing was because, what with the Counter-Reformation and changes in taste, the altarpiece was sent, without two side compartments, to the church of Sant'Ansano a Dofana. At this time the prophet Elijah, claimed by the Carmelites, to the right of the Virgin, was repainted as Saint Anthony Abbot. The panels that remained in Siena soon ended up on the market. A very damaged Crucifix of c. 1329, previously thought to be by Pietro Lorenzetti but now ascribed to Ambrogio, is also in the Pinacoteca. It was found to be in a deplorabile stato when the church was suppressed, and underwent restoration for the 2017/18 Ambrogio Lorenzetti exhibition in Siena but still looked very rough (see detail right). In May 2020 it was announced that it had gone to Florence for more restoration work and in March 2021 it was revealed that 'the first phase of the restoration...is starting to conclude'. Also in the Pinacoteca is Bernardino Fungai's Virgin and Child Enthroned, with Saints Sebastian, Jerome Nicholas and Anthony of Padua (1512), his only signed and dated work. So all the scholarship on Fungai flows from this work. Some predella panels in the Howard University Gallery of Art in Washington are said to be parts of this altarpiece. Christ Suffering and Christ Triumphant by Giovanni di Paolo (see far right) from the early 1420s, originally commissioned by Francesco Bellanti, Bishop of Grosseto for his chapel in San Domenico. The demon painted in the scene below the triumphant Christ's feet has been defaced, the word 'demon' inscribed on his chest. In even odder graffiti the three souls in purgatory to the left of the devil have had their heads crossed out and their bodies numbered III, II and I. This panel and a polyptych of 1453 by the same artist for the high altar here are also in the Pinacoteca. The original and unfinished version of Saint Michael and the Fall of the Rebel Angels from c.1527 by Domenico Beccafumi, even more vigorous and full of flexh than the one over the right-wall altar (see above) was rejected by the monks here and is now in the Pinacoteca. Vasari described it as ‘una pioggia d’ignudi molto bella’ (a rain of lovely nude figures) and said that it was placed in Santa Maria della Scala in 'a room near the high altar at the top of the stairs'.
Campanile |
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History Originally established as part of the convent called the Spedele di Monna Agnese, a charitable foundation founded around 1280 by Monna Agnese, who was given property by Orlando Malavolti. The hospital was originally for young widows and pregnant girls and was managed by lay people. The complex was named in Sasso for being built on pebbles. In 1565 the building passed to the Ospedale of Santa Maria della Scala and soon afterwards the church was completely renovated taking on its current form. Suppressed at the end of the 18th century, hospital functions moved to Santa Maria della Scala and the rooms here were made into a girls' school. The deconsecrated church was put to various civil uses until, in 1995, it became part of the Museo dell'Opera of the Duomo and is now the museum gift shop through which you exit. Interior The church is now overwhelmingly late baroque inside, with stucco decoration by Ludovico Chiappini and painted panels by Giambattista Giustammiani from the early 17th century, mostly depicting stories from The Life of the Virgin. Also early-17th-century are the altarpieces by Francesco Vanni (the high altarpiece depicting The Virgin and Child Enthroned, with Saints Lawrence, Gregory, Nicholas and Agnes), Rutilio Manetti (who contributes two), Astolfo Petrazzi, Raffaello Vanni and Niccolò Tornioli (a Crucifixion of 1631/2). Lost art A 1342 altarpiece of the Presentation of the Virgin, a fine late work by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, is in the Uffizi. A panel of the Allegory of Redemption, also by Ambrogio, is in the Pinacoteca. It's thought that they were originally once part of an altarpiece for an altar dedicated to Saint Crescentius in the Duomo. They both ended up in the Spedale di Monna Agnese from which they were later dispersed, The Presentation going to the Florence Accademia in 1822. |
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San Pellegrino alla Sapienza Sant'Anastasia Via della Sapienza |
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San Pietro |
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San Pietro alla Magione San Pietro in Camollia/San Pietro della Magione Via Camollia |
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San Pietro in Castelvecchio |
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History Built from May 1511, by local subscription. Contains 17th-century works by Rutilio Manetti (frescoes of the Life of San Rocco from 1605-10), Raffaello Vanni and others. The home of the Lupa (she-wolf) contrada since 1789. The district's museum here has an altarpiece of The Apparition of the Virgin before San Rocco signed in 1603 by Ventura Salimbeni. Opening times Rarely |
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San Vigilio Via San Vigilio |
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