Tuscany - Italy - page 174

175
1300s. The city ran out of funding, and the chapel wasn't topped off for another
century.
Inside the Palazzo Pubblico is the Museo Civico

555

(Palazzo Pubblico,
Piazza del Campo; % 0577-292226; www.comune.siena.it/museocivico; € 7; Mar-Oct
10am-7pm, Nov-Feb 10am-5:30pm), home to countless huge murals and paint-
ings created when Siena was at the peak of her military and artistic power. In the
Sala del Mappamondo is Simone Martini's first known work: His Maesta (1315)
is an extraordinary debut for any artist. Even in this early work you'll see Martini's
mastery of color and texture in the Madonna's elaborately patterned gown; his
later work, Guidoriccio da Fogliano on horseback, is also here. Note how Peter
(with key) and other saints are on tent-post-holding duty. The knight on horse-
back across the room is a Sienese army captain riding by conquered Montemassi.
The message to the town officials who would gather in the room: Govern not only
with power but with justice.
The art continues to teach lessons for rulers in the Sala di Pace next door. In
these allegorical works, we see the results of Good Government--people dancing,
prosperous fields, and so on--and Bad Government. In the latter, a devil rules
over post-plague Siena, where muggers attack villagers and thieves roam the coun-
tryside attacking travelers. The artist Ambrogio Lorenzetti himself died of plague
in the epidemic 10 years after he completed the frescoes.
Siena's Duomo or Cathedral of Santa Maria dell'Assunta

( % 0577-
283048; www.operaduomo.siena.it; € 3; 10:30am-7:30pm, Sat opens 1:30pm, in
winter closes 3:30pm) is one of Italy's—and, I think, the world's--most hand-
some Gothic churches. It was begun in 1196, at a time when the Pisan proclivity
for incorporating black and white marble stripes into their great church building
was at its height, and these striking bands define both the exterior and interior
spaces. You'll see one of the church's greatest treasures just as you enter: the 56
exquisite mosaic marble panels created by artists from the 14th to 16th centuries
(a few were unfinished until the 19th c.). They're roped off, some covered with
cardboard for protection (if these mosaics are the reason for your visit, come in
Aug when they're fully uncovered). The famous Pulpit, carved by Nicola Pisano
in 1265, dramatizes the story of Christ's life on its panels. The northern transept
has a set of tombs, including Donatello's 1415 bronze of Bishop Pecci. The
Piccolomini altarpiece features four statues of saints done by a young
Michelangelo. He had signed on to do another 11 statues, but skipped town for
a better gig—the David in Florence. Don't overlook the Libreria Piccolomini,
halfway down the left nave near Michelangelo's saints, noteworthy for its beauti-
ful frescoes. Pope Pius II is the subject of 10 of the large frescoes, while Siena's St.
Catherine gets her own piece on the left side of the room.
Money problems plagued the construction of the Duomo, and plans to make
it the largest in the world never panned out. The unfinished area now houses the
Museo dell'Opera Metropolitana

555

(Piazza del Duomo, 8; % 0577-283048;
€ 6; Apr-Oct 9am-7:30pm, Nov-Mar 9am-1:30pm), home to many of the artworks
that once graced the Duomo, inside and out. If you climb the highest tower of
the museum, you'll end up at about the same height as Siena's main tower. The
view is, to my mind, even better (partially because you get to see that tower!). Of
the many highlights here, the statues in the first room by Giovanni Pisano, with
their craning necks--they were taken from the exterior and meant to be viewed

55