UNIQUE EVENT
From June 26th to July 31st and from August 18th to October 17th DISCOVER THE ARTISTIC FLOOR
During the visit, other than contemplating the biblical scenes of the Artistic Floor, you will also have the opportunity to savour the many artistic masterpieces that line the cathedral: the famous Pulpit sculpted by Nicola Pisano, the intense bronze sculpture of Saint John the Baptist sculpted by Donatello, Michelangelo's sculptures for the Piccolomini Altar, Bernini's statues in the Votive Chapel (which holds a dear place in the hearts of Sienans), as well as the extraordinary Piccolomini Library where the famous Pinturicchio frescoes depicting the biography of the humanist Enea Silvio Piccolomini (Pope Pius II) can be seen. The visit will continue to the other museum areas that belong to the Cathedral complex: the Muesum of the "Opera del Duomo", which houses the "Maestà" polyptych, a 14th century altarpiece painted by Duccio di Buoninsegna and his most famous work of art; the Crypt; the Baptistry; and the Oratory of Saint Bernardino where the Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art is located.
The floor is the result of a complex iconographic program carried out over the centuries, from the fourteenth to the nineteenth century, inlay after inlay, for a total of fifty-six panels, whose preparatory designs were drawn by artists, almost all of which from Siena, including Sassetta, Dome... more
The floor is the result of a complex iconographic program carried out over the centuries, from the fourteenth to the nineteenth century, inlay after inlay, for a total of fifty-six panels, whose preparatory designs were drawn by artists, almost all of which from Siena, including Sassetta, Domenico di Bartolo, Matteo di Giovanni, Domenico Beccafumi, as well as by the Umbrian painter Pinturicchio, author of the famous panel with the Allegory of the Hill of Wisdom, a symbolic representation of the way to Virtue as the achievement of inner serenity. The precious polychrome marble floor is extraordinary and unique, not only for the technique used, but also for the message that it conveys throught its figurations, a constant invitation to wisdom, starting from the aisles with the protagonists of the ancient world, disheveled sibyls and authoritative philosophers, up to to biblical subjects under the dome, in the presbytery and in the transept. The path opens with the entrance inscription, in front of the central portal, an invitation to enter "chastely" in the Virginis templum, the house of Mary, which reflects the strong bond that Sienese citizens have had for centuries with their 'patron' : Sena vetus civitas Virginis. Immediately after the inscription is the famous inlay with Hermes Trismegistus, the Egyptian sage, the first great theologian of antiquity. Philosophers such as Socrates and Cratete follow in the inlay of Pinturicchio, Epictetus, Aristotle, Seneca and Euripides who accompany the Wheel of Fortune and invite the detachment from earthly goods to devote oneself to philosophical thought. We then move on to the biblical itinerary in which Domenico Beccafumi, compared to the artists of previous generations, makes use of new stylistic methods by renewing the opus sectile technique.
lessTicket office in Piazza Duomo, 1
53100 Siena
0577/286300
Entrances
Cathedral, Piccolomini Library, and Museum of the "Opera del Duomo" in Piazza del Duomo; Crypt at the Staircase of San Giovanni, Baptistry in Piazza San Giovanni, Oratory of San Bernardino in Piazza San Francesco.
By car
From the north: on Highway A1, get off at the “Firenze Impruneta” exit then continue on the Firenze/Siena Freeway (40 min.)
From the south: on Highway A1, get off at the “Valdichiana” exit, then continue on the Bettolle-Siena road (2 ½ hours)
The Cathedral is in the historic center of the city, which cannot be reached by car. If arriving by car our best advice is to exit at Siena Ovest and reach the Cathedral Parking, or exit at Siena Sud and reach the "Parcheggio Il Campo". Parking info: https://www.sienaparcheggi.it
By train
Visit the website https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html for the timetables of the connections between Rome, Florence, Pisa and Grosseto. Siena's train station is in piazza Carlo Rosselli, about 2 km from the historic center. From the train station to the center by bus is only about 5 minutes (for information: city bus schedule)
The panel is located in the main nave and is the only one made in mosaic. We can admire the she-wolf nursing the twins inside of a circle, to which eight other roundels are connected and which show the emblems of the allied cities.
The she-wolf, which became a symbol of the city of Siena already in medieval times, is linked to the legend of the founding of the city by Senio and Aschio, sons of Remus, who fled from Rome to escape the wrath of their uncle Romulus. In this scene, the fig tree is visible behind the she-wolf; it was there that, according to tradition, the shepherd Faustulus found Romulus and Remus while the she-wolf was nursing them. Collecting the twins, Faustulus took them home and entrusted them to the care of his wife Acca Larenzia.
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The inlay designed by Pinturicchio (the fourth along the central nave), shows the personification of Fortune towards the bottom of the panel: a naked girl holds the cornucopia with her right hand, while the wind blown sail is raised with her left. Hers is an unstable balance: her right foot rests on a sphere, while her left is placed on an ungovernable boat, the mast of which is broken.
Fortuna, after a stormy journey, managed to land some wise men on a rocky island, walking an uphill path full of pitfalls. On the summit of the mountain, which the wise men try to reach, a female figure is seated: Wisdom or Virtue. The woman offers, with her left hand, a book to Cratete, who gets rid of all fictitious goods by throwing a basket full of jewels into the sea; with her right hand she gives a palm to Socrates. The message of the allegory of the floor is quite evident: the path to Wisdom is arduous, but once the difficult tests have been overcome, serenity is achieved, symbolized by the plateau covered only by flowering bushes.
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This is the only scene in the floor that refers to an episode from the New Testament (Gospel of Matthew 2:1-18). The inlay evokes a topical event that had befallen the Sienese. In 1480, in fact, while the Duke of Calabria was in Siena, the Turks, who had landed in Otranto, perpetrated a bloody massacre against the citizens, beheading them for not having abjured the Christian faith.
Domenico Beccafumi will perfect the opus sectile technique, combining marbles of different shades in his inlays, obtaining surprising chiaroscuro results, in which lights and shadows outline the figures with such artistic skill, as to seem like masterpieces made with the woodcut technique or monochrome paintings.
Beccafumi accomplished his revolution of the opus sectile technique in the frieze of Moses bringing forth Water out of the Rock, which is inserted between the two pillars that support the dome, towards the presbytery. The main source for the depiction of the scene is a passage from Exodus (17:1-7), in which the people of Israel, after having crossed the Red Sea, are marching towards the promised land, but are suffering from a lack of water, until Moses works a miracle by striking the rock at Horeb, in the presence of the elderly: "the water will flow from it for the people to drink". According to the interpretation of St. Paul, in the first letter to the Corinthians (10:4), the stone represents Christ, from whom salvation flows for those men who draw water from it: "all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was the Christ".
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