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
The church of Sant' Agostino was built between 1280 and 1299. It was
consecrated by the Cardinal Matteo d'Acquasparta--a short while before
that very unsatisfactory prelate's attempt to make peace in Florence
while Dante sat in the priorate. On the right of the principal entrance
is the chapel of San Bartolo, constructed in 1494 by order of the
Commune. The tomb itself is the work of Benedetto da Maiano and his
pupils, but hardly equal to the one that Benedetto had made for Fina.
The _tondo_ of the Madonna and Child, in which the Mother is guiding the
Infant's little hand to bless the people, is most exquisite, and
probably it (with, perhaps, the three theological virtues) is the only
part executed by the master himself. The three Saints on the wall, the
four Doctors on the ceiling were painted by Sebastiano Mainardi. The
picture over the next altar, of the same year 1494, the Madonna and
Child, with many Saints and a tiny little Dominican friar as donor, is
one of the best works of Pier Francesco Fiorentino. The frescoed Pietà
above is ascribed to Vincenzo Tamagni. Then comes one of those curious
symbolical representations of the Passion, which Don Lorenzo and Fra
Angelico had made traditional. The second altar, dedicated to St
Nicholas of Tolentino, has frescoes of 1529 by Vincenzo Tamagni,
representing the Madonna and Child with Angels, St Nicholas of Tolentino
and St Rock, St Antony the abbot and St Paul the first hermit. At the
first altar on the left, the chapel of the Crocifisso, are more frescoes
by Tamagni; kneeling opposite the Magdalene at the foot of the Cross is
St Clare of Montefalco, holding in her hand her heart marked with the
signs of the Passion; the St Margaret on the left is a thoroughly
Raffaelesque figure, while the Madonna and St John are more like
Perugino at his weakest. Then comes St Sebastian taking the people of
San Gimignano under his protection in the time of pestilence, an
admirable fresco by Benozzo Gozzoli; around the Apollo of Christian
legend gather the people of the town in prayer; in spite of Christ and
Mary, the Eternal Father and the Angels of wrath are hurling down the
arrows of pestilence, but these are broken into pieces by other Angels
at Sebastian's intercession. Over the third altar is the Madonna delle
Grazie with St Michael, originally a fresco by Lippo Memmi, but
completely repainted and modernised.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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