I learned this the hard way when, just after arriving in Siena, I discovered my camera was dead. Without fail, the one time I don't check, 'oh, I'm sure it's fine.' Very frustrating. Fortunately, I have good friends that take good pictures and let me have copies, so these are all theirs, and I've learned my lesson and now bring extra batteries everywhere I go.
Anyway, we went to Siena several weeks ago for our wednesday class trips. It has been considered the rival of Florence for many centuries. As much as Florence is known for exmplifying Renaissance art and architecture, Siena is reknowned for its Medieval roots.
The first building we visited was the Basilica of St. Catherina. It was relatively small with only one central nave. Over its history, the original stained glass windows have unfortunately almost all been destroyed. In the last few decades, the broken windows have been replaced by new contemporary stained glass that adds a unique element to this medieval church and a refreshing new look after seeing loads of antique styled glass.
This building is the first bank ever opened in the region, and still functions as a bank today, though they have added an art museum inside. While the facade remains medieval, the inside has been updated and modernized.
One interesting thing I've noticed lately is a characteristic of some medieval buildings. Instead of using low relief sculptural pictures or standing statues to represent famous people, they create statue heads sticking out of the walls that look like wall-mounted animal heads. I suppose they do this because, since the heads are so high and they are looking down, people are able to see the faces better from below... but I still feel it's a little creepy seeing a head poke out of the wall.
This is the Civic Building in the Piazza del Publica.
... a view of the piazza. It is shaped like a giant fan with each blade, so to speak, representing a different quarter or part of the city. They hold a huge horse race each year with each quarter competing with the perimeter of this piazza being the course. Specators stand in the center in their corresponding quarter's space and watch the horses race around the piazza three times.
The main attraction, Siena's Cathedral, an Italian Gothic design, shown by the tall pointed arches and spires.
... very ornate front facade that used different colored limestone and basaltic stone to create stripes
This is an interesting part of the cathedral: when they first planned it, the builders wanted to create a huge structure that would beat their rival Florence's Cathedral in both size and prominence. However, as construction got underway, it couldn't be done both because the terrain was not good (unlike mostly flat Florence, Siena is built on very steep hillside, not suitable for a large floorplan) and because, as most stories go, they ran out of money. So, midway through building, they changed the plans and created what is now the church from what was originally going to be just the transcept (the shorter bar of the cross-shaped plan). This is some of the remains they left behind of what would have been the nave. Even still, one can only imagine how big they wanted it to be when you see how big the church still is.
...more of the exterior.
Inside the cathedral. One unusual element of this otherwise gothic building that sets it apart from French gothic are the use of horizontal stripes, evident everywhere in this church. Typically, gothic architecture emphasizes verticality to show a reaching up towards the heavens. By adding the stripes, this building tends to feel more grounded and spread out on the earth, an idea found more often in Renaissance buildings.
Another interesting part of this cathedral was the highly elaborate pulpit, carved with scenes from the gospels.
...and my personal favorite element that sets this cathedral apart is the floors. Instead of marble mosaics in large geometric designs or figurative pictures made with small tiles, the builders used a technique to create large almost drawing like pictures and scenes that gave them much more freedom to, in essence, draw the stories from the scriptures. This was done by chiseling small grooves and holes in the marble floors, and then filling those with a marble past to create a smooth surface. This method allowed for much more precise lines of various thicknesses to make drawings with incredible depth and perspective, much more easily than with small colored tiles. These were found all over the entire floor of the church, and were actually roped off in order to preserve the unique displays.
... just some other pictures of the hillside and paths through Siena.
1 comments:
Beautiful!
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