The great cathedral of Siena, the Duomo.
The façade is crowded with sculptures and architectural details and boasts three large
doors, the central one capped by a bronze sun.
Work began on the lower part around the year 1284 using polychrome marble, with statues
depicting prophets, philosophers, apostles and stories of the Virgin.
The façade was then raised higher in the early 14th century to accommodate an expanded
and higher nave, utilizing a more elaborate design scheme in the upper level heavily influenced
by French Gothic architecture.
And then the façade was finished sometime between 1360 and 1370.
But don't just look at the outside.
Pay that small admission fee to enter into paradise.
It is one of the world's most beautiful and intriguing churches.
It's a must-see on your visit, loaded with astonishing architecture, sculpture and paintings.
This first sensation might be one of positive bewilderment of riches.
Nothing quite prepares you for its unparalleled lavishness of decoration.
You are surrounded by so many beautiful things that you don’t know which way to turn next.
It is a vast, orderly confusion of beauty.
One aspect you cannot miss is the huge dome that soars overhead.
This is a mysterious and magical feature that appears to be coffered with square recesses,
but this is an optical trick painted on in the 16th century.
Slightly asymmetric, the blue dome with golden stars is a stunningly attractive sight representing
the Kingdom of Heaven.
The cupola was finished in 1264, and thus preceded Brunelleschi’s larger dome at Florence
by 150 years.
The great gothic pillars stretch down the long nave carrying round arches whose inner
curves are elegantly coffered, and surmounted by a cornice containing a 172 plaster heads
of popes looking down.
One is dazzled again by the infinite multiplicity of beautiful detail wherever the eye can reach.
Another masterpiece, that some consider the most significant individual work, is the elaborately
carved 13th-century pulpit by Nicola Pisano, with help from others like Arnolfo De Cambio
and his workshop.
Pisano was one of the most important Gothic sculptors in Europe whose animated styles
paved the way for the Renaissance, which he anticipated.
He carved many great works, but the most important are the pulpit here and the one in Pisa.
The naturalistic carving of the lions holding up the pulpit is a departure from earlier
rigid Gothic carvings and could be considered the beginnings of Renaissance sculpture.
As a platform for preaching, the pulpit was a focal point of great interest to the congregation
during the sermon, and this one rises to the occasion with many elaborate, flowing scenes
from the life of Christ.
Dimensions of the church are 289 feet long by 80 feet and the transepts measure 173 feet
wide.
Michelangelo, a native of Tuscany, has a marble statue of St. Paul and three others here,
not his best work -- but noteworthy because it was to be part of a larger series of 15
statues that he was paid for by Pope Pius III but never finished, resulting in a lawsuit
that dogged him for much of his life.
Adding further insult, one of the other statues in this Piccolomini altar was carved by a
rival, Pietro Torrigiano, who had broken Michelangelo’s nose a dozen years earlier, permanently disfiguring
him.
On the right side enter through a magical doorway.
Piccolomini Library.
We are now in one of the world's most beautifully painted rooms.
This is called a painted biography because it is about one person, Piccolomini, a person
who became Pius II.
these are the original colors, they are 500 years old.
These frescoes have never been restored.
Look at the fresh colors.
This has some beautiful perspective, and so on.
The Piccolomini Library, a gallery with a series of 10 large, brightly-colored frescoes
painted in realistic Renaissance style by the Perugia master Pinturrichio, from 1502
through 1509.
The frescoes depict important events in the life of Pope Pius II.
After the pope died, his nephew, who later became Pope Pius III, funded construction
and decoration of the room, which was one of the most important art projects in Italy
at that time.
Most visitors are unaware of this hidden treasure that it is well worth the small admission
fee to go inside.
On a fine Renaissance pedestal stands a famous antique Group of the Three Graces, found in
the Palazzo Colonna at Rome about 1460 by Pius II. and presented by him to the cathedral
library.
From this work Raphael is said to have made his first studies from the antique.
The viewing experience is astonishing because you are completely surrounded by the painting,
totally immersed inside it rather than just looking at it.
The walls are filled with deep perspective showing vast landscapes and elaborate architecture
that frames extremely detailed scenes religious and political celebrations, depicting hundreds
of people in decorative Renaissance dress, interacting with the Pope.
Pinturrichio is not very famous worldwide because most of his work was done here and
in his native Umbria, although he did some work in several other major churches including
the Sistine Chapel's lower walls, and a few of his paintings are in important museums
in America and throughout Europe.
Each scene is framed by illusionistic columns and arches decorated with red and white marble
trompe l'oeil paneling.
The 3-D illusion makes it seem we're looking through the arches of a gigantic loggia into
broad imaginary spaces filled with many people and distant landscapes.
As crisp and real as a photograph, truly these are masterpieces.
The hero of this pictorial history was Enea Silvio Piccolomini, who became Pope Pius II.
Before becoming pope or holding any religious position he lived a diverse life full of accomplishment
as a humanist, scholar, diplomat, poet and novelist, including fathering several children
and writing a best-selling erotic novel still available today called The Tale of Two Lovers.
The life story of Pius is quite dramatic, the fitting subject for such a vast panorama.
He traveled as a diplomat throughout Europe as far as Scotland, Germany, Switzerland and
Bohemia.
Pius II is portrayed first as a very charming youth, elegant and refined.
And then he presents himself as an envoy of the Council to King James I in Scotland.
Perhaps his greatest moment when he was crowned as Pope in the Latteran in Rome.
He canonizes St. Catherine of Siena with the un-deCamposed corpse of the saint at his feet.
Greeting the Venetian naval fleet in Ancona on its way to battle with the Turks.
Exhausted by the journey, Pius died the next day.
Bringing our library visit to a close.
The remarkable floor is one of the most famous things inside the Duomo with 56 large mosaic
pictures made from multiple types of colored marble.
It is considered by many to be the building’s masterpiece: it is unique in the world.
Bold three-dimensional, geometric designs frame the pictures and extend throughout all
dimensions of the floor.
You can have the singular experience of walking on a work of art, on a marble carpet picture
gallery instead of looking at paintings on a wall, but the unwary could easily overlook
these mosaics while gazing around at the Duomo’s many other powerfully attractive features,
so be sure to have a good look down at your feet while you're walking around.
Rome’s greatest Baroque sculptor, Gianlorenzo Bernini, is also represented in a side chapel
which he designed, containing two of his statues of saints -- Jerome and Mary Magdalen.
It is rare to find any works by Bernini outside of Rome, so this is a special treat.
This Cappella Del Voto, belonging to the Chigi family, was built in 1661for Pope Alexander
VII., a native of the Siena region who supported Bernini’s studio in Rome with important
commissions, including Alexander’s major tomb in St Peter’s.
More than just a religious structure of the Duomo is the economic symbol of wealt, h international
trade and cultural influences.
It is the only building in town constructed entirely of marble.
Nearly a century after it was finished the Sienese hoped to expand it into the largest
church in the world, but that never happened because the Black Death, the plague, wiped
out most of the population in 1348, and the ambitious work was halted.
Upon exiting the church look around to the right side where you'll find evidence of the
earlier plans to expand the church.
In what is now a parking lot, they left standing what would've been the façade of that grand
church.