Skip to main content

THE MARBLE FLOOR of SIENA's CATHEDRAL

When it comes to Renaissance art, you're often meant to look up - so as to take in frescoes on ceilings and high medieval walls. Once your neck starts aching, don't book a massage, but buy a ticket to visit Siena's cathedral and its incredibly ornamented floor. Admiring the cathedral's grounds covered in marble intarsia will provide plenty of opportunity to stretch those sore muscles into the opposite direction. 


Siena cathedral: panorama view of the uncovered marble intarsia floor
The cathedral's marble floor uncovered



Only from August to October each year is the floor entirely visible. During the other months the marble intarsia are mostly covered up so as to protect them from wear and tear. Centuries of visitors to Siena's cathedral treading on them have taken their toll. Various parts of the floor have been overworked, however care was taken not to change any of the original layout of the single designs. 

The uncovered marble floor in Siena's cathedral
The layout of the marble floor in Siena's cathedral

Probably the oldest part of the inlay marble floor is dedicated to Siena's emblem: the she-wolf nursing Senius and Aschius (the sons of Remus, who supposedly ran away from Rome and from their cruel uncle Romulus to then found Siena). The work may have been carried out from 1373 and was renewed in 1864/65. The original (and rather worn-out) mosaic can be seen at the OPA museum. My kids love looking at all the animals on the intarsia whilst trying to find out what city they belong to. And above all why? What's that hare got to do with Pisa? 


One of the intarsia making up Siena's cathedral floor: The emblem of Siena (Rome's She-Wolf and Senus and Aschius)
The emblem of Siena: Senus and Aschius escaping with Rome's She-wolf. 


The semi-precious stones used in the intarsia are the famous white marble from Carrara (northern Tuscany) and the dark green marble from Prato near Florence. The red marble arrives from the quarries of Ravi, a little village near Gavorrano in the Maremma. You can find out more about the graffito and marble intarsia technique used in the making of the cathedral's floor on the Florentine blog Arttrav. 

Being a Pinturicchio lover, I always stop to admire his Allegory of the Mount of Wisdom, with the Greek philosophers Socrates and Crates and the figure of a woman caught in a rather tricky balance act between a globe and a ship,  symbolizing the erratic fate of fortune or luck in the form of the Roman goddess Fortuna. 

The allegory depicts the difficult and uphill path we humans have to undertake if we want to reach wisdom. Good to know that once you're up on top you don't need any more worldly goods. As always with this wonderful Renaissance painter beauty is found in the detail. See how Pinturicchio managed to create movement on the right side of the picture? Forget the heaviness of marble. Looking at this part of the floor I'm always tempted to hold out my hand to catch one of the golden rings or pearl necklaces falling from the mountain - I obviously haven't even started yet on the way to wisdom. 
Pinturicchio's Allegory of Mount of Wisdom on the Cathedral's inlaid floor
Pinturicchio - Allegoria del Colle della Sapienza


If you like his take on the floor, make sure to also have a look at Pinturicchio's frescoes on the walls of the Libreria Piccolomini. The small room dedicated to the life of pope Pius II offers a lot more insight and picturesque detail in regard to a life wisely lived. 

THE FLOOR IS UNCOVERED FROM THE 18th of AUGUST to the 24th of OCTOBER 2012.
Siena cathedral opening times: daily from 10:30am to 7.30pm and from  9.30am to 6pm on Sundays and public holidays. Tickets to the cathedral cost 6€ during the uncovering of the floor. However, I'd recommend buying the OPA Si pass, which costs 12€ and gives access to several great sights in town, mainly the cathedral, baptistery and Siena's Opa museum. 

Check out the Siena museum page for more info on the Opa museum and any other museum in town. 


Labels:
Location: Piazza del Duomo, 53100 Siena SI, Italia

Popular posts from this blog

BEST BIKE RENTAL IN SIENA

Villa Catignano: one of the many beautiful places an e-bike can get you to from Siena A few years ago, I interviewed an American writer , who during her month-long stay in Siena whizzed through the city on a bicycle. This was an unusual sight - vespas are the two-wheelers of choice in Siena's hilly town center, not bikes like in mostly flat Florence.  But the invention of e-bikes is about to change this. The city of Siena has installed an  electric bike sharing program which is functioning well. However, it's mostly aimed at locals and residents, as its set-up is a little complicated for visitors who only stay a couple of days in town. Hence, for tourists, the best bike rental options in Siena are with the privately owned shops which supply bycicles of every size and type for a day or two or an entire week.  Giulia from Julskitchen.com cycling through the hills of Siena Siena Bike Shop rents out racing bycicles, hybrid and e-bikes and is a great optio...
Read on...»

Ambrogio Lorenzetti's frescoes and paintings

From toddlers to octogenarians, when in Siena I schlepp everybody to see Ambrogio Lorenzetti's 'Buon Governo'. The long title of the painting is 'The Allegory of Good and Bad Government in the City and the Countryside' and it is exactly that - namely an accurate depiction of daily life in medieval Siena. The detailed and elegant fresco cycle is a rarity not just in regard to Lorenzetti's style and technique, but mainly due to its subject matter. In the 14th century, paintings and frescoes focus on stories and characters from the old and new testament and  not on the day-to-day tasks of builders and farmers.  Medieval Siena depicted on one of the walls of Ambrogio Lorenzetti's fresco cycle in the Palazzo Pubblico (©Wikipedia) And this is exactly why it's so much fun to spend some time in front of the fresco cycle in the  civic museum in Siena's Palazzo Pubblico. Whether its kids  - or meat lovers - looking for the famous Cinta Senese pig  ...
Read on...»

NINA ZILLI CONCERT IN PIAZZA DEL CAMPO

Whatever the exact financial situation of the city of Siena and its famous nearly broke bank - the fact that free concerts are back on Piazza del Campo is a promising sign! In the summer of 2012 ,   Patti Smith  sang 'People have the Power' on Piazza del Campo. The song and her fabulous concert in Siena feature in the book soundtrack - and hopefully also in the future film adaptation - of my memoir  Across the Big Blue Sea .  But while a spectacular full moon rose behind Torre del Mangia the night of Patti's concert, the city itself had just started its descent into a longlasting financial nightmare. The Monte dei Paschi bank -  founded in  1472 it is the world's oldest continually operating bank -  turned from  prodigy into Italy's problem child (more about this here ), and with the bank's debacle, the free concerts on Piazza del Campo had lost their main sponsor.  Nina may not be a world-star, but she's definitely one of th...
Read on...»