The great classics.
Palazzo Pubblico and the Duomo
For an overview of the great masterpieces of Siena’s architecture, painting and sculpture, I suggest focusing on the city’s two most important monuments. The Palazzo Pubblico in Piazza del Campo has uninterruptedly been the seat of the city’s government since the fourteenth century, and contains some extraordinary fresco cycles, primarily of a political nature, painted in the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries, including Simone Martini’s Maestà, the warrior Guidoriccio, Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s allegory of Good and Bad Government, Taddeo di Bartolo’s Illustrious Men, saintly and blessed citizens of Siena portrayed by various artists, and positive and negative examples from antiquity portrayed by Domenico Beccafumi.
The Cathedral, symbol of the city’s devotion to the Virgin Mary, stands out for its masterpieces of thirteenth to sixteenth-century sculpture, such as Nicola Pisano’s pulpit, the statues of the prophets by his son Giovanni, monumental tombs of illustrious personages, Donatello’s bronze Saint John the Baptist, marble statues by Michelangelo and Bernini, and an extraordinary labyrinth of inlaid marble floor mosaics by various artists illustrating the story of the salvation of humanity. Between these two highlights is the bustling city of Siena, with its streets, fountains, and panoramic views testifying to thousands of years of history.
The Cathedral, symbol of the city’s devotion to the Virgin Mary, stands out for its masterpieces of thirteenth to sixteenth-century sculpture, such as Nicola Pisano’s pulpit, the statues of the prophets by his son Giovanni, monumental tombs of illustrious personages, Donatello’s bronze Saint John the Baptist, marble statues by Michelangelo and Bernini, and an extraordinary labyrinth of inlaid marble floor mosaics by various artists illustrating the story of the salvation of humanity. Between these two highlights is the bustling city of Siena, with its streets, fountains, and panoramic views testifying to thousands of years of history.
Recommended time: 3 hours
Delving deeper.
The Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala and the Contrade
To learn more and wander the meanders of the unexpected, underground Siena, let me lead you through the shadowy depths of the thousand-year-old Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala. You’ll feel you are going back in time as you travel through the layers of history of this place that has been the backdrop of millions of human lives, a micro-history of pilgrims, patients, nursemaids, orphans, clergy and laypersons, knights and artists, as well as a number of prominent personages.
But the city’s real human capital and soul are hidden in its contradas. Each contrada has its own centre, with a chapel, a museum, a stable for the horse during the palio, a fountain, and a sort of clubhouse, all within well-defined boundaries, making Siena a “confederation of 17 states”. Discover the rituals, traditions and values of an age-old social system unlike any other in the world.
But the city’s real human capital and soul are hidden in its contradas. Each contrada has its own centre, with a chapel, a museum, a stable for the horse during the palio, a fountain, and a sort of clubhouse, all within well-defined boundaries, making Siena a “confederation of 17 states”. Discover the rituals, traditions and values of an age-old social system unlike any other in the world.
Recommended time: 3 hours
Architecture.
The palaces and coats of arms of the great families of Siena
The historic centre of Siena, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1995, is a big maze of streets, squares, hidden lanes, panoramic views, tower houses and splendid palaces built to glorify the great families who wrote the history of the city: the Tolomei, Salimbeni, Ugurgieri, Spannocchi, Sergardi, Piccolomini, and Chigi families, and many more. I’ll take you on an “architecture walk”, craning our necks to look up at the buildings, architectural styles and status symbols of the aristocracy of Siena over the centuries.
A great tour for a spring or summer evening, after dinner!
The great Sienese painters
Part I: The Middle Ages - Duccio, Simone Martini, the Lorenzetti family
Siena is a small town with an extraordinary abundance of splendid churches and museums. To discover the great school of painting that has made the city a true cultural capital since the fourteenth century, I begin with the ancient history of the Cathedral crypt, continuing with a visit to the Museo dell'Opera and the Pinacoteca Nazionale, featuring masterpieces by Duccio di Buoninsegna and his numerous pupils. The Museo Civico abounds in allegorical frescoes by Simone Martini, Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Taddeo di Bartolo, Vecchietta and Beccafumi, while the National Archives preserve the outstanding collection of tavolette di Biccherna, the painted leather covers of the records of the fourteenth- and fifteenth-century chancellery of finance. Lastly, the less frequently visited Museo Diocesano conceals a great masterpiece of Mannerism: the Stories of the Virgin painted by Beccafumi and Sodoma.
Part II: From the Renaissance to the present
Siena also flourished in the Renaissance, though overshadowed by the might of its neighbour, Florence. The painters of fifteenth-century Siena (Sassetta, Giovanni di Paolo, Sano di Pietro, Domenico di Bartolo, il Vecchietta, and many more) left the city great masterpieces of rare beauty, and exported many more. One of the greatest examples is the frescoes in the Pellegrinaio, the hall where pilgrims were housed in the Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala. In the early sixteenth-century Siena was the theatre of competition between two great Mannerist artists, Sodoma and Beccafumi, influenced by Raphael, Leonardo, and Michelangelo. Their styles may be compared in the frescoes of the oratory of San Bernardino, now part of the Museo Diocesano. The seventeenth century opened with the novelty of Caravaggio’s style, imported to the city by Rutilio Manetti, and continued with the development of Baroque painting under the patronage of Pope Alexandro VII, a member of the Chigi family of Siena, visible in numerous minor churches and a number of private collections. Foreign artists were most popular in the eighteenth century, until a Fine Arts Academy was founded in Siena in 1816, training artists of the calibre of Luigi Mussini, Amos Cassioli, Pietro Aldi and many more. The best-known Sienese artwork of this time may be found in the Sala del Risorgimento in the Palazzo Pubblico.
Recommended time: half-day or whole day (6 hours)
Sienese sculpture
Sculpture is a versatile art form that makes use of a great variety of materials, from noble marble and bronze to humble terracotta, wood and plaster. Let me take you on a voyage of exploration of three-dimensional art in Siena, from the reliefs illustrating the life of Christ sculpted by Nicola Pisano (1265) to the funerary monuments of illustrious personages; from Jacopo della Quercia’s earliest statues in the round to the wooden marquetry of Domenico di Niccolò dei Cori and Antonio Barili, and from the Renaissance masterpieces of Donatello and Lorenzo Ghiberti, Vecchietta and Antonio Federighi to the inimitable works of Michelangelo and Bernini. Giovanni Dupré and Tito Sarrocchi led the Purist school of the nineteenth century, to be admired in a fascinating tour of the chapels of the Monumental Cemetery of the Misericordia.
Patronage and art collecting:
the Siena of the Grand Tour
Collecting art is a practice that began in the late eighteenth century. Fortunately, a number of collections have been kept in Siena in their entirety; one of the most extraordinary of these has always been housed in the galleries of Palazzo Chigi Saracini, home to the prestigious Accademia Musicale Chigiana, a school of music founded in 1932 by Count Guido Chigi Saracini. The splendid halls of Palazzo Sansedoni contain the collection belonging to Fondazione Monte dei Paschi di Siena, which also owns the collection housed in Rocca Salimbeni, the historic headquarters of this ancient Sienese bank. Another highly various and little-known collection belongs to the Società di Esecutori di Pie Disposizioni, the modern-day descendent of Siena’s oldest lay confraternity, founded in the thirteenth century. Come with me to view these collections with all the erudite spirit and curiosity of the first international travellers who came to Italy in the eighteenth and nineteenth century to complete their cultural education on what was known as the Grand Tour.
Surrounded by greenery outside the city: the silence of the gardens and monasteries
A medieval hortus conclusus, a walk along the ancient walls, a country church, the terraced garden of a sixteenth-century villa, romantic castle grounds, monastery cloisters, historic holiday homes amid the Sienese hills: there are all sorts of quiet places close to Siena where you can contemplate the unique combination of art and nature in perfect solitude.
Contemporary art
The Siena area offers plenty of opportunities for lovers of twentieth-century and contemporary art, in both monographic exhibitions and group projects, public and private. The country home of Sienese art critic Cesare Brandi contains works by the greatest Italian artists of our times, from De Pisis to Manzù, from Morandi to Guttuso, Ceroli and Burri. San Gimignano is a great place for an unusual treasure hunt among the towers in search of permanent installations by world-renowned artists of the calibre of Kapoor, Lewitt, Kosuth, Kounellis and many more, ending at one of the town’s contemporary art galleries. Botero, Guttuso, Mitoraj and others have left the contradas of Siena artworks connected with the palio, now visible in their museums. Jean Paul Philippe’s Site-Transitoire, the Pievasciata Sculpture Garden, and the Bosco della Ragnaia in San Giovanni d'Asso offer specimens of environmental art. Antony Gormley’s anthropomorphic figures blend into the town of Poggibonsi, while Mimmo Paladino’s Dormienti populate the waters in the Fonte delle Fate. The “Forme nel Verde” sculpture exhibition brings new life to the town of San Quirico d'Orcia and its surroundings in summer. For those who appreciate good art and good wine, Castello di Ama in the Chianti area conceals a vast private collection of site-specific artworks by world-renowned artists such as Buren, Balka and Pistoletto among the barrels in its cellars. Sandro Chia makes wine in Montalcino, where his artworks add a touch of vibrant colour to the land. There is contemporary architecture too, especially between Colle Val d'Elsa and Siena, with projects by Michelucci, Pierluigi Spadolini, and Jean Nouvel.
Theme tours
If you are already familiar with the city and would like to learn more about specific aspects of the history and culture of Siena, I offer tour itineraries focusing on specific themes, such as Women of Siena, Romantic Siena, Siena and Music, Literary itineraries in Siena, or Sweet and savoury specialties of Sienese cuisine, not to mention Chianti, the wine of Siena.
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