Architectural Posters of Siena

Siena: The Gothic City as a Unified Work of Art

These six motifs reveal how closely Siena’s urban form, civic government and sacred art are intertwined. The cathedral and Piazza del Campo are not isolated monuments: they belong to a medieval fabric developed across three hills that has preserved its Gothic character to the present day.

AP 535, AP 009, AP 128 and AP 313 · Piazza del Campo

Siena’s three principal streets meet in a valley where the shell-shaped Piazza del Campo developed. Its brick paving slopes towards Palazzo Pubblico and is divided radially into nine sections. Buildings of different dates form a remarkably unified perimeter, and the Campo still hosts the Palio twice each year. AP 535 and the smaller AP 009 present the civic focus in colour with Palazzo Pubblico and the Torre del Mangia. AP 128 combines façade studies, details and historic views as a documentary survey. AP 313 unfolds the long, gently curving frontage as a narrow panorama.

AP 536 · Palazzo Pubblico and the Torre del Mangia

Palazzo Pubblico was begun in 1297 for the Government of the Nine as the seat of the Sienese Republic. The central block and right wing were complete by 1311; the left-hand section for the Podestà followed between 1325 and 1331. Brick walls, pale tracery windows and a crenellated skyline make the palace a major work of medieval civic architecture. The almost 87-metre Torre del Mangia was added directly beside it in the fourteenth century and together they define the city’s silhouette. AP 536 analyses the ensemble, extended over several centuries, through an overall elevation and individual building phases. Inside, Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s fresco cycle of Good and Bad Government, painted in 1338/39, recalls the building’s political purpose.

AP 543 and AP 362 · Siena Cathedral

Santa Maria Assunta combines Romanesque forms with a richly animated Gothic façade. Giovanni Pisano directed the cathedral works from 1284 to 1297, played a central part in the lower façade and carved its programme of prophets, sibyls and philosophers of antiquity. The originals are now preserved in the Museo dell’Opera, with copies in their place outside. White, green and red marble, deep portals, gables and pinnacles turn the front into a layered union of architecture, sculpture and colour. AP 543 and the smaller AP 362 reproduce this wealth of detail in a precise coloured elevation.

AP 537 · The Cathedral’s Marble Floor

The cathedral floor is not merely a decorative surface but a continuous visual and intellectual programme. Its fifty-six panels were created between the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries from designs by leading artists; all were Sienese except the Umbrian Pinturicchio. In the graffito technique, lines are cut into white marble and filled with dark material, while marble inlay joins coloured stones like marquetry. Sibyls, biblical scenes and allegorical figures trace a path towards wisdom. AP 537 presents the complete plan, making the position of every panel legible at a glance.