X

Accommodations by Region

”Apri"
Things to do in Italy > Siena and surroundings

Remember to enter chastely.

Where: siena
(Pavimento del Duomo di Siena.)
Genre: events    culture   

Sienese artists who designed the cartoons in the first half of the 16th century worked on the 56 inlays of the floor. The designers were Sassetta, Di Bartolo, Di Giovanni and Beccafumi to which was added a stranger, Pinturicchio. The technique of recomposition of the figures was the Commesso in which large slabs of Sienese marble and of different colors were assembled to restore the depth and movements of the characters. Philosophers, Sibyls and moral gods accompany the visitor's journey to the altar. In the first Tarsier, Hermes Trismegistus (Sassetta, 1488), symbol of Wisdom, is depicted, in the side aisles two rows of five Sibyls named according to their origin (eg Persica, ellespontica). In the central nave, Maccari remade the mosaic of 1373 of which the side frames with mythical figures relating to the she-wolf, symbol of Siena, remain. It is due to Pinturicchio, the design of the IV tarsia of the central nave of 1505-06 where Fortune stands unstably, saving the philosophers and on top of the hill Wisdom and Socrates throw the gold from the bag, conquering wisdom. Finally Beccafumi, who devoted almost his entire artistic life to his drawings, created four hexagons and two lozenges according to the chiaroscuro technique in the Mannerist style. In 1531 he designed the rectangular inlays of Moses and that of the birth of the Golden Calf and finally in 1546 the sacrifice of Isaac. Later authors are Di Giovanni, with the Tarsier of the sacrifice of children in Bethlehem and the Tarsier of the Franks that concludes the cycle.

See where you can comfortably stay in Siena
We and our partners use cookies to display personalized advertising and for profiling and measurement purposes. Do you agree? Ok Cookie policy