The Story of Siena and San GimignanoGardner, Edmund G.
History
The Story of Siena and San Gimignano
Gardner, Edmund G.
Art -- Italy -- Siena; San Gimignano (Italy) -- History; Siena (Italy) -- History
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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