Tuesday, June 03, 2003
Today we had our trip to Siena -- and just like everything else in this country, it was stunningly beautiful. The town is built among three steep hills, and everything is made of bricks that are a very earthy reddish-brown -- hence the name of the color, sienna. It's subdued and lovely.
Our first excursion was to the cathedral, Santa Maria della Scalla -- which is a gorgeous 13th century church. The inside might be my favorite of all the churches we've been to yet. Everything is carefully decorated. All around the nave, the busts of popes stare down on the people below, and the vaults and ceiling are decorated fields of blue, dotted with gold stars. The floors, too, are wonderful to behold -- they are covered with inlaid marble reliefs that depict various scenes and saints. But best of all are the many columns: the pillars are not covered with the magnificent frescoes that we've seen in places like the Basilica di San Francesco, but rather they are constructed of black and white marble, forming a repeated horizontal striped pattern that is so simple, yet so amazingly intense and beautiful. The black and white is symbolic for Siena, and is featured all around the city and on the crests: Siena in myth was founded by Senius, the son of Remus, who fled to the town in order to escape persecution by his uncle, Romulus. He was able to escape because he was obscured by a white cloud during the day, and a black cloud at night. Thus, Siena claims ancient ties with Rome. The she-wolf with Romulus and Remus is also a prevalent theme in statues all throughout the city.
After the cathedral we ventured next door to the museo dell'opera, which holds many of the original statues from the facade of the church, and also many of the original marble reliefs from the floors, which have been so worn by the centuries that they are mere silhouettes, shadows of their former grandeur. Somehow they are almost more poignant in their worn state -- there is a beauty in the way they have been simplified with age, yet still form a coherent and no less lovely image.
Next we moved on to the town hall, which was especially interesting because it also holds artwork that isn't Christian in nature -- the first we've seen on our class excursions. There were nine governors of Siena, they are depicted in the town hall along with the usual assortment of saints and religious figures. The art is kind of a hodge-podge of styles and periods, and often changes from room to room, but it's all very beautiful. The Room of the Nine contains a fresco showing the effects of good government and bad government -- ironically enough, the side of the room with the depictions of tyrrany is the side that has been heavily damaged from Florentine invasions in the fourteenth century. The side depicting prosperity under benevolent rulers, however, is a very lovely stylized fresco showing the city and the landscape. It's funny how in the fresco the city is painted in vibrant colors, but in actuality almost everything is the sienna brown.
After lunch we were on our own for the rest of the afternoon. I went to the baptistery of the cathedral and sketched the baptismal font there, which has several reliefs and sculptures by Donatello on it. Later I ventured to a different church, San Domenico, which is dedicated to Saint Catherine of Siena. She's a popular figure in the art of the town as well, for obvious reasons. San Domenico also holds the head of Saint Catherine -- or one of the "heads" since as a relic, it seemed to miraculously multiply during the early Renaissance. I found it more gruesome than holy. The church seems much less preserved than the other cathedrals I've visited -- there were vestiges of what must have once been beautiful frescoes covering the walls, but most of these paintings were very damaged, and only small, faded portions remained. The rest of the walls were covered in blank expanses of off-white. A few large paintings hung along the walls, and the Chapel of Saint Catherine was nicely decorated in frescoes detailing scenes from her life, but overall it felt very empty, almost abandoned, especially when compared to a place like Santa Maria della Scalla.
The bus ride home was, for once, one which I did not sleep through. I was told that Siena is truly in the heart of Tuscany, and the landscapes around the town contain the most beautiful scenery. And it's true. Siena fades into undulating hills that seem as if they were covered in large blankets of green velvet. They look like you would sink into them if you dared step onto the lush soil; like enormous feather pillows, soft and almost unreal, marked here and there by dark clusters of trees or thin cypresses, or the occasional red-brown color of a house or small town. Absolutely astounding. As we neared Castiglion Fiorentino, the rounded hills become more wooded again -- still beautiful, but without the same ethereal loveliness of the Sienese landscape.
Everything here is just so... amazing. I can't turn around without finding something that is beautiful or ancient or historically rich. I see so much, but everytime I depart from a city I feel as though I missed nearly everything. That's the only downside to this trip: so very much to see, and so very little time.
| 3:58 PM |
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