(Previous sites on this day: Outside the Duomo , Piazza Il Campo)
We then moved indoors decorated in black and white stripes, that I found out were the official colors of Siena. With the busts of 172 popes watching us, we first stopped at Piccolomini’s altar.
Piccolomini was the patron in chief of art in Siena. He went on to become Pope Pius II and found a more prestigious burial place in Vatican.
Michelangelo was commissioned to complete the altar. His heart was never into it as he was working on David in Florence simultaneously. Steven Spielberg started shooting Schindler’s List which Jurassic Park was still in post production and have always wondered how one could undertake such mammoth opus’s back to back. Would the imagination machinery not need a break?
Being the perfectionist he was, Michelangelo ended up completing only one of the necessary fifteen pieces (seen here on the right).
Ghiberti made it a Renaissance fashion to carve oneself into art pieces - a little naughty hat-tip to self. This statue is widely believed to be Michelangelo’s self portrait especially the broken nose. St. Paul’s dangling right hand could also be an early prototype that would materialize on David’s arm. Look for it.
Next site: Piccolomini’s library
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