Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, Siena - 12

by AM FineArtPrints

Title

Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, Siena - 12

Artist

AM FineArtPrints

Medium

Painting - Painting

Description

Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, Siena - 12

The Metropolitan Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta is the main church of Siena, in Tuscany, the episcopal seat of the metropolitan archdiocese of Siena-Colle di Val d'Elsa-Montalcino; the building is located in the square of the same name, in Terzo di Città.
Built in Italian Romanesque-Gothic style, it is one of the most significant churches built in this style in Italy.
The façade, all in white marble with some decoration in red of Siena and serpentine of Prato, is divisible in two halves, inferior and superior, referable to two distinct constructive phases. The richness of the decoration, mainly sculptural, hides irregularities and asymmetries derived from the long construction phase to which many designers have put hand.
The lower façade was built by Giovanni Pisano and refers to a Romanesque-Gothic style of transition. He worked there between 1284 and 1297, before suddenly moving away from Siena, probably because of the criticisms he had done in the municipality for waste and disorganization. The three portals (with conch, lunettes and ghubergs) and the two side towers date back to this phase. The central portal has a round arch, the lateral ones are slightly ogival; the sguanci are decorated with thin twisted columns, with capitals carved in foliage. They support the archivolts, also twisted, having as keystones satyr heads. Three arches surmount the arches. They are decorated with rampant leaves and in the middle there are busts, but added only in the seventeenth century. On the summit there are statues, representing Angels (lateral ghurberg) and a statue of the Virgin (central gimberga), to which the great oculus seems to act as a halo. The external lateral towers are squat and robust, lightened only by slender windows, which open in the recesses, and cusped by shrines with statues, gargoyles and Gothic crowns.
Giovanni Pisano also took care of the sculptural decoration, and accompanied the façade of a surprising cycle of Gothic statues. The human figures are fourteen in total, of which eight on the front, three on the left side of the facade and three on the right. These have as their subject Prophets, Patriarchs, Pagan Philosophers and Prophets and is unique in Italian Gothic sculpture as they have a precise iconographic program where all the figures, voluntarily or involuntarily, announce the Coming of Christ. On the façade we find, from left to right, the Philosopher Plato, the Prophet Habakkuk, a Sybil, King David, King Solomon, Moses and Jesus of Sirach. On the left side we find an unidentifiable figure, the Prophet Isaiah, and the soothsayer (and involuntary prophet) Balaam. On the right side we find Simeone, the Prophetess Mary of Moses and the Philosopher Aristotle. Below these statues we find animal figures, while higher up, between the Madonna and the Angels and resting on the architrave, we find the anthropomorphic representations of the Four Evangelists. All the statues are copies of originals preserved in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo. Di Giovanni Pisano or his workshop are also the statues of the side towers, up to the top.

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April 22nd, 2021

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