The building of the complex which includes the church and the convent began around 1225 – apparently after a visit to Siena by St Domenic himself – and finished in around 1262-1265.
Basilica di San Domenico
Basilica di San Domenico, View from the top of the Torre del Mangia
In the thirteen-hundreds the church was extended in a fully Gothic style and work on the choir began in 1361. The structure has survived until today, despite devastating fires in 1443 and 1531, occupation by the Spanish military in 1548 and 1552, and the earthquake of 1798.
Basilica di San Domenico in the early 1900's
The interior of the basilica has a strange relationship with the exterior. The façade is stark even crude, locatable thanks to the central eye at the top of the building. Probably work was interrupted to avoid damage to the Cappella delle Volte, mentioned as early as 1369, which still leans against the back of the building. This chapel was untouchable because it links the basilica di San Domenico to the story of Santa Caterina da Siena. It was in the cappella delle Volte the Sienese mystic performed some of her most important miracles.
So, to avoid damage to this important chapel, the façade of the basilica was left in brick and the entrance remains at the side. The visitor enters directly into the Cappella delle Volte where, in 1667, a fresco showing S. Caterina e una devota< by Andrea Vanni (1375) was installed. This is the only portrait painted while the Saint was alive, and may therefore be a good likeness. The chapel contains masterpieces such as the splendid Baroque Canonizzazione di Santa Caterina, by Mattia Preti. There is also a fifteenth century wooden choir.
Immediately outside the chapel is the church, with its wooden ceiling and its T-structure typical of Siena's great monastic churches. On the right are paintings and in a niche a wooden fourteenth century Crocifisso. Further along is a wooden Pietà and on the second altar the Natività della Madonna<, a masterpiece by Casolani (1584). There are also relics of St Catherine, including a finger and a Pietra sacra – sacred stone – used as a portable altar.
Cappella di Santa Caterina
Halfway down the nave on the south, is the Cappella di S. Caterina commissioned in 1460 by Niccolò Bensi to house the head of the saint in a magnificent marble altar by Giovanni di Stefano (1469). On the right two graceful angels hold a candelabra; the relic is in the centre, protected by a grille, above a bust of the Saint. The Blessed Caterina dei Lenzi – patron saint of Italy – is buried below the altar table. The frescoes which cover the chapel were begun by Sodoma who painted the Svenimento mistico – Mystical Rapture – and L'estasi della Santa – Ecstasy of the Saint (1526) with a singular intensity. The lively, dramatic Decapitazione di Niccolò di Tuldo is also attributed to Sodoma, as is the elegant decoration on the sides of the altar and on the inside of the arch.
Francesco Vanni, Saint Catherine exorcises a possessed woman
After an interruption, the work of decoration was taken up again by Francesco Vanni who painted S. Caterina libera un'ossessa – Saint Catherine exorcises a Possessed Woman – on the right wall, and Scene della vita del Beato Tommaso Nacci on the space between two columns. The dramatic and special effects of the dome above and the mythological scenes on the marble floor are incredible.
Sacristy
Beyond the Saint's chapel is the sacristy with its beautiful altar and canvas standard by Sodoma depicting the Assumption. Just visible on the ceiling are traces of fourteenth century frescoes and to the side the remains of an ancient sacristy. This was replaced by the Saint's chapel.
Back in the nave is a fragment of a fresco showing the Madonna in trono e Bambino benedicente un guerriero – The Throned Madonna and Infant Jesus blessing a < – the Adoration by the Shepherds. This is one of the Sienese master's greatest pictorial works done between 1475 and 1480. It marks a movement towards the spirit of Botticelli in Siena.
Francesco di Giorgio Martini, Nativity scene; in the lunette: Matteo di Giovanni, Christ in Pietà
The huge transept is interspersed with chapels and closed on its south side by the Altar
The second chapel contains tombstones and fragments of frescoes while the third has another masterpiece by Matteo di Giovanni – Madonna, Child and Saints<. Here the altar is a magnificent, modern work by Arturo Jacchia, using angels and marble sculptures from the Renaissance, attributable to Benedetto da Maiano. The beautiful canvas of the Uccisione di S. Pietro Martire on the right-hand wall was painted by Arcangelo Salimbeni in 1579.
In the fourth chapel are works of the Sienese School and a wooden statue of St Anthony the Abbot on the altar attributed to Turino di Sano.
Fifth chapel
In the fifth chapel is a key work in Sienese art, Guido da Siena's La Maestà.
Guido da Siena, Maestà – Madonna in Majesty
Guido was the first famous Sienese painter, working between 1260 and 1280. This magnificent image of the Madonna, ethereal and enthroned, set off by the starkness of the work as a whole, illustrates effectively how in Siena, as early as the thirteenth century, artists managed to balance Byzantine iconography with a wholly Tuscan sensibility. Duccio da Buoninsegna was greatly influenced by this work which he probably had a hand in partially repainting. There are eighteenth-century ceiling frescoes by Giuseppe Nasini, and two other delicate masterpieces of Sienese painting – a Madonna enthroned with Child, Angels and Saints by Benvenuto di Giovanni (1483) and S. Barbara enthroned with St Catherine and Mary Magdalene (1479) by Matteo di Giovanni. The Adoration of the Magi on the lunette is also by di Giovanni.
Matteo di Giovanni, Saint Barbara between Saints Magdalen and Catherine of Alessandria
Benvenuto di Giovanni, Pietà and Maestà
In the sixth chapel is a sixteenth century Crucifix. The north transept is closed by a stately Baroque altar dedicated to Saint Domenic.
The walls on the north of the nave are not as richly decorated as the south, but there is a marvellous canvas by Sodoma, a vast Heavenly Father, Saints Vincent, Ludovic, Catherine of Siena and Sebastian. Below fragments of fourteenth-century frescoes is Saint Anthony Abbot exorcising a possessed woman, by Rutilio Manetti (1628). In the Basilica's main windows is stained glass by modern artists – Cantatore, Quaroni and Clerici. In the majestic esafora< – windows with six arches at the base – is glass designed by Cassinari.
From the sacristy, the crypt displays fascinating fragments of sculptures in its walls, pieces originating from ancient ecclesiastical structures. The triple vaulted crypt is a fine example of Sienese Gothic, housing a beautiful crucifix on a gold ground by Sano di Pietro. The fifteenth-century cloister, although greatly reworked, displays fine pillars by Antonio di Niccolò da Settignano.
Comune di Siena 2010 - accessible version -
