Skip to main content

MUSEUM NIGHT IN SIENA: SATURDAY MAY 17, 2014


Technique of Sienese painting at the Pinacoteca Nazionale


How did they do it, is what I most often wonder when looking at one of the masterpieces of the Sienese school of painting. Endless patience must have been needed to spend days or weeks on the tiniest detail on the dress of a saint or the woolen blanket of a pilgrim.  

Siena's museum night is a good moment to find out how Siena's medieval workshops approached the chore. The Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena (home to the biggest collection of Sienese paintings in the world) will be open from 8 pm till midnight and a specialist will present an introduction to the elaborate painting technique in use in Siena from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. 

MUSEUM NIGHT IN SIENA: Saturday May 17, 2014
Pincacoteca Nazionale, Via di San Pietro, 29 
8 pm to midnight, 9.30 pm presentation of painting technique
Entrance 1 Euro per person. 

Siena's synagogue (via Salicotto near piazza del Campo) and the Santa Maria della Scala museum in piazza del Duomo will also be open till midnight. Both offer offer free entrance during the museum night. 

For daily opening times and usual ticket prices of Siena's museums and the synagogue check our Siena museum page

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...

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  ...

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...