SIEDLISKA, MARIA FRANCESCA DE

SIEDLISKA, MARIA FRANCESCA de. – In religion SISTER MARY OF JESUS THE GOOD SHEPHERD, foundress of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, born at Roszkowa-Walla (diocese of Warsaw) on 12 November 1842, died at Rome on 21 November 1902.

Though of a family alien to the Catholic faith, she grew up devoted to intense piety, so that at her First Communion she resolved to consecrate herself entirely to the service of God. After refusing a marriage proposed by her father and overcoming the gravest difficulties of health and opposition, she was finally able to establish in Rome, almost under the watchful eye and care of Pius IX, her new Congregation on 1 October 1873. Its special aim was to provide for the education of poor children in special schools; to gather orphans into its own asylums; to take in poor sick persons into hospitals without charge; and to receive girls and women for spiritual exercises, even in the missions. The houses soon multiplied, especially in Poland and in North America, guided and animated by the frequent letters and visits of the foundress. The cause of beatification was introduced on 4 December 1940.

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**Siena, Archdiocese of.** – City and archdiocese, provincial capital in Tuscany. It has an area of 80 sq. km. with a population of 85,000, of whom 84,000 are Catholics, distributed in 110 parishes and 13 vicariates, served by 140 secular priests and 70 regulars; it has a major and a minor seminary, 14 male religious communities and 33 female (Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 379). The diocese, which suffered severe reductions in the 15th and 16th centuries, extends in the form of an irregular rectangle from north to south, mainly on the right bank of the Ombrone with its tributaries Arbia, Merse, Lanzo and Gretano; it is traversed by the Via Cassia and the Via Grossetana. Its suffragan dioceses are those of Grosseto, Chiusi, Massa Marittima, Sovana and Pitigliano.

**I. Origins and history.** – Siena (Saena, Sena, Senae) has obscure origins. Probably an Etruscan centre, it became an important Roman colony around 30 BC, though few ruins remain.

According to tradition, Christianity was introduced at the beginning of the 4th century by the young Roman ANSANUS ANICIUS, martyred for the faith on the Arbia in 303 and later become the principal patron of the diocese. Documents from the 7th century attest a monastery and a church dedicated to the martyr (Lanzoni, p. 564). It is almost certain that the bishop of Siena at that time was FLORIANUS, who attended the Roman Council of 313, but the history of the diocese for the first centuries is shrouded in darkness. After Florianus, the see is recorded as having had EUSEBIUS, who took part in the Roman Synod of 465; MAURUS at that of 649, and about that time he concluded a compromise with the bishop of Arezzo over the disputed possession of eighteen pievi situated in Sienese territory (cf. C. Lazzeri, La donazione del tribuno Zenobio, etc., Arezzo 1938, pp. 12 ff.); and VITALIANUS, who signed the famous Letter to the Emperor of the East at the Roman Council of 680. The compromise over the disputed pievi was not maintained, and long disputes with varying fortunes recurred, even breaking out into violence, as in the translation of the body of St Ansanus to Siena (1107), down to the 12th century, without advantage to Siena and leaving a legacy of animosity between the two dioceses. Meanwhile, a few kilometres from the city there arose the famous Benedictine monastery of St Eugenius (730), and a few years later, at the extreme limit of the countryside, the still more famous abbey of the Holy Saviour (v.).

Religious life took firm root. The authority of the bishop, already prominent alongside the Lombard gastaldi, was strengthened under the Frankish counts.

As the Carolingian Empire declined, the bishop remained the sole undisputed authority. The imperial count returned to Siena only with Otto I, and not for long. Power had passed to the bishop, who exercised it with a council of noble consuls and by summoning the people before the church to approve proposals. Side by side with this political evolution, ecclesiastical life developed. Already by the beginning of the 10th century the Cathedral Chapter was living in common with its Schola, of which the names of some masters and priors have been handed down. The Sienese Chapter still boasts the brief affiliation of the learned St BRUNO OF SEGNI to that school. The canons founded the hospital of Santa Maria della Scala for sick and abandoned pilgrims, entrusting its care to a lay congregation, the Frati dello Spedale, but reserving for themselves approval of the rector and oversight of administration. Until the end of the 14th century the Chapter elected the bishop. At Siena the future Pope NICHOLAS II was elected against the antipope Benedict X (1058), a sign that it supported the new reform movement. Even before the Investiture Controversy, the Sienese Church had obtained (c. 1055) quasi-sovereign prerogatives over a wide territory between the Arbia and the Merse, which would form the fief of the bishopric, lasting, amid conflicts and agreements, until Peter Leopold (1786).

From the political and religious disorder arising from the struggle between Papacy and Empire (when Gregory VII confronted Henry IV, the Sienese Church was governed by the bishop St RODOLPHUS (1072-84)), the great feudal lords took advantage to extend their domains. But by now the movement for the unification of communal life could not be halted; and under the guidance of the bishop and the consuls the power of the great was being gradually reduced. Donations followed in succession to the bishop and the Virgin Mary, to the bishop and the people, to the Virgin and the Commune. The feudal lords were required to reside in the city. The new conflict between Pope Alexander III of Siena and Frederick I found as bishop of Siena the active and zealous RAINERIUS (1129-67), to whom we owe the precious calendar-obituary of the Sienese Church (c. 1140). When the consuls, pressed by the imperial vicar, imprisoned some ecclesiastics, the bishop excommunicated the consuls and placed the city and countryside under interdict. The clergy remained faithful to the Pope, but the bishop was forced to flee and could not return (d. 1170). It was at this time that the new cathedral was consecrated. As a Ghibelline city, Siena received imperial recognition of its liberties (1186): free election of consuls (which Siena had practised for decades), the right to mint coinage, etc.; this recognition was completed with the institution of the podestà (1199). Unfortunately the movement towards communal unification was accompanied by continuous wars between Siena and Florence, wars which neither the pastoral zeal of the bishops BUONUS (1189-1215) and BONAGUIDE (1216-52) nor the peace preaching of the new Orders—Dominicans, Franciscans, Servites—could calm, until Siena managed to defeat its Guelph rival (1260) and to dominate Tuscany for a decade, after giving itself a wise civil constitution (1262). The great Guelph merchants and bankers took control of the government, which they, the “Nine,” held with wisdom and energy for a long period without notable upheaval (1292-1355).

**Siena, Archdiocese of.** – A Bernardine trigram supported by an angel (15th century) – Siena, Conservatori Riuniti.

The legacy of the Blessed ANDREA GALLERANI (ca. 1200–51), founder of the Casa di Misericordia (ca. 1240), expanded with the Compagnia dei Disciplinati under the vaults of the Hospital (1295), which still preserves some of the ancient charity under the name of Società di Esecutori di pie disposizioni; the Blessed BERNARDO TOLOMEI (1272–1348) founded the Congregation of the Olivetans in 1319; the Certosa of Maggiano and Pontignano arose; the Commune, not content with its great cathedral, planned an even larger one, and Bishop DONNUS DE (1313–51), a benefactor of the faith for his charity and firmness toward the Fraticelli—as his predecessor BUONFIGLIO (1216–52) had been toward the Albigensians—blessed the first stone of the great Cathedral in 1339. Though unfinished, it remains a testament to faith, daring, and genius.

Siena was filled with churches, convents, and hospitals, all inspired by the grace of art. Three years after the deadly plague, the same Bishop Donnus, in his will (1351), bequeathed gifts to 20 parishes, 34 convents, 2 abbeys, and 13 hospitals. The countryside matched the center of the diocese in this contest of faith and charity. Yet deeply troubled by turbulent passions, after the fall of the "Nove," the people were consumed by continuous internal and external strife that led the Republic to ruin (1555) with its incorporation into the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. During these two centuries, the University of Siena was elevated by CHARLES IV (1357) to a Studium Generale, with the bishop empowered to confer degrees; the work of the Blessed GIOVANNI COLOMBINI and his Jesuits flourished; the zeal of ST. CATHERINE was seen, as was the learning of the Ilicetan centuries; its Observance was blessed; the city hosted GREGORY XII, a patron of the Studium to whom he granted a chair of theology; EUGENE IV (Gabriele Condulmer), formerly bishop of Siena (1408); the unfinished Ecumenical Council of 1423; the episcopate of AENEAS SILVIUS PICCOLOMINI (1450–58), later Pope PIUS II, who elevated the see of Siena to a metropolitan see on 23 April 1459; then that of FR. PICCOLOMINI (1460–1501), later Pope PIUS III; and that of FR. BANDINI PICCOLOMINI, a vigorous defender of the faith against innovators (1529–88). Faith remained steadfast in the Sienese church, despite sporadic defections culminating in the apostasy of BENEDETTO OCHINO.

After the Republic fell, Siena became part of the Duchy of Tuscany. In the new political climate, the norms of Trent inspired fruitful initiatives, especially directed by the Capuchins and Jesuits, who arrived in Siena in 1536 and 1555, respectively. The episcopate of the learned Archbishop A. PICCOLOMINI (1588–97); of the most zealous Cardinal FR. TARUGI (1597–1607), who held a provincial synod (1599); of Cardinal M. BICHI (1612–14), founder of the Seminary; and of A. PICCOLOMINI (1628–71), who prudently adapted educational norms to changed conditions but encountered fierce resistance from two prominent lay congregations jealous of their supposed rights in implementing canonical prescriptions—all honored the Sienese Church. The Seminary, strengthened by the munificence of ALEXANDER VII (1660), drew students from across Tuscany, rivaling the Collegio Tolomei run by the Jesuits; after their suppression (1774), the Scolopi took their place.

Jansenist controversies barely touched the diocese. But when Pietro Leopoldo sought to implement religious reforms alongside his economic measures, Archbishop P. BORGHESI, a benefactor, defended the rights of ecclesiastical doctrine and discipline after the Grand Ducal suppression of lay confraternities and the reorganization of the city’s parishes (1783–86). Pope PIUS VI was a guest in Siena from February to May 1798. The religious orders suppressed by the French (1808–09) returned after the Restoration. The Risorgimento did not find the diocese unprepared for the new times, as worthy prelates such as the learned and generous Archbishop G. MANCINI (1824–55) governed II. The Seminary and Collegio continued to train young clerics and lay students until this century, when the Seminary was separated from the Collegio; through the efforts of Archbishop P. SCACCIA, the Seminary obtained the faculty to confer degrees in theology (1914–31). The University of Siena had suppressed theology in 1860.

II. ILLUSTRIOUS FIGURES

The following honored their Sienese Church and homeland: ROLANDO BANDINELLI, a distinguished jurist who later became ALEXANDER III (1159–81); Cardinal RICCARDO PETRONI (ca. 1250–1313), a profound jurist and patron; the two Piccolomini popes; CAMILLO BORGHESE, a Sienese by origin who later became PAUL V (1605–21); FABIO CHIGI, a man of letters and diplomat who became Pope ALEXANDER VII (1655–67); AMBROGIO CATERINO (Lancelotto Politi: 1487–1553), a poet and theologian; CLAUDIO TOLOMEI (1480–1555), a poet, philologist, politician, and bishop of Corcyra (1549–55); SIXTUS OF SIENA (1520–69), a convert from Judaism and a learned biblical exegete; SALUSTIO BANDINI (1677–1760), archdeacon of the Duomo and a keen economist; Abbot GIOVANNI CASELLI (1815–91), a physicist and inventor of the pantelegraph; Monsignor NAZARENO ORLANDI (1872–1945), a pioneer of Catholic Action and founder of the Federation of Associations of the Clergy in Italy (F.A.C.I.). To the already mentioned saints are added the Blessed AMBROGIO SANSEDONI (1220–82); Blessed ANDREA GALLERANI (ca. 1200–51); Blessed FRANCESCO (d. 1328) and Blessed ANTONIO PATRIZI (d. 1311); Blessed GIOACCHINO PICCOLOMINI (1258–1305); and the Blessed CATHERINE LENZI, NERA TOLOMEI, CATHERINE COLOMBINI, along with others whom every Sienese family proudly claims.

III. REMARKABLE MONUMENTS

Siena abounds in monuments.

Among these, foremost is the Cathedral, dedicated to the Assumption. Since the 12th century, a galaxy of artists has worked here, creating in harmonious composition masterpieces of every style. The Romanesque bell tower (13th century), the dome (1266), the pulpit of NICOLA PISANO (1268), the façade by GIOVANNI PISANO (1297) and GIOVANNI DI CECCO (14th century), the inlaid marble floor with designs by BECCAFUMI, MATTEO DI GIOVANNI, and others; the choir by FRANCESCO DEL TONGO and IL RICCIO; the high altar by PERUZZI; the tabernacle by IL VECCHIETTA; the bronze and marble statues by GIOVANNI DI STEFANO, FRANCESCO DI GIORGIO, TINO DI CAMAINO, and DONATELLO; the Piccolomini altar by ANDREA BREGNO (1503), with statues by MICHELANGELO; the Chapel of St. John with the relic of the Baptist’s arm; the statue of the Baptist by DONATELLO; the statue of St. Catherine of Alexandria by NERECCIO and paintings by PINTURICCHIO; the Chapel of the Vow, where the ancient image of the Advocata Senensium is venerated, along with St. Jerome and Mary Magdalene by BERNINI and a finely wrought altar by CELLINI; and the adjoining Piccolomini Library, containing Pinturicchio’s *Life of Pius II*, to whom also belongs the *Coronation of Pius III* on the inner wall of the Duomo.

The Museo dell’Opera, annexed to the Cathedral, holds inestimable treasures: sculptures, statues (formerly in the Cathedral), the *Three Graces*, drawings, illuminated codices, goldsmith works, avori (ivory carvings), embroideries, reliquaries, vestments, and the panel by DUCCIO, the *Maestà* (1309–11), made for the high altar of the Cathedral.

BIBL.:
- A. Lisini, *Il Duomo di Siena*, Siena 1939;
- G. Milanesi, *Documenti per la storia dell’arte senese*, 3 voll., Siena 1854–56;
- G. Pecci, *Siena e i suoi monumenti*, Siena 1905;
- G. P. Paciarelli, *Memorie storiche della città di Siena*, 2 voll., Siena 1784–86;
- G. A. Pecci, *Storia del Vescovado di Siena*, Siena 1894;
- G. A. Pecci, *Biografie di senesi illustri*, Siena 1894;
- G. A. Pecci, *Il Seminario di Siena*, Siena 1900;
- G. A. Pecci, *La Compagnia dei Disciplinati sotto le volte dello spedale di S. Maria della Scala*, Siena 1901;
- G. A. Pecci, *La Compagnia di S. Caterina di Siena*, Siena 1902;
- G. A. Pecci, *La Compagnia di S. Bernardino*, Siena 1903;
- G. A. Pecci, *La Compagnia di S. Girolamo*, Siena 1904;
- G. A. Pecci, *La Compagnia di S. Antonio*, Siena 1905;
- G. A. Pecci, *La Compagnia di S. Agostino*, Siena 1906;
- G. A. Pecci, *La Compagnia di S. Domenico*, Siena 1907;
- G. A. Pecci, *La Compagnia di S. Francesco*, Siena 1908;
- G. A. Pecci, *La Compagnia di S. Maria*, Siena 1909;
- G. A. Pecci, *La Compagnia di S. Pietro*, Siena 1910.

The Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala, facing the Duomo, a gigantic two- and six-storey building (14th century), encloses within it, together with the masterpieces of art in the church, the oratories beneath it, and its interior—particularly in the Pellegrinato (1440–43) by Domenico di Bartolo and il Vecchietta—the history of ten centuries of Christian charity. The parish church of San Giovanni, built (14th century) beneath the presbytery of the Duomo, has a baptismal font crafted by Jacopo della Quercia, Donatello, and Ghiberti.

The Basilica of San Domenico (1223–23), now the Basilica Cateriniana, boasts the Cappella delle Volte with the portrait of Saint Catherine by Andrea di Vanni and the Cappella di Santa Caterina with the saint’s head and frescoes by Sodoma, as well as a majestic crypt. The Basilica of San Francesco (1246–23), vast and austere with masterpieces by Ambrogio and Pietro Lorenzetti, damaged at various times and during the Second World War, is a pilgrimage site for the miracle of the *Sacre Particole*, preserved intact since 1730. Adjacent to San Francesco is the Oratory of San Bernardino, with paintings by Beccafumi, Sodoma, and Del Pacchia; it houses the saint’s heart and the tablet of the Name of Jesus, drawn by the saint himself. The Basilica of Santa Maria dei Servi (c. 1260), with its unfinished façade renovated in 1534 and dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, was restored at the beginning of this century, featuring works by Matteo di Giovanni, Taddeo di Bartolo, P. Lorenzetti, and Fungai.

The Church of Sant’Agostino (from 1258 onward), remodelled several times, spacious and luminous, contains a triptych by Simone Martini, a *Crucifixion* by Perugino, *The Slaughter of the Innocents* by Matteo di Giovanni, and *The Epiphany* by Sodoma. Santa Maria del Carmine (13th–14th centuries), restored in this century, holds an archaic *Madonna dei Mantellini* and *Saint Michael* by Beccafumi. The house of Saint Catherine, transformed into an oratory (from 1464 onward), is a sanctuary to which pilgrims come from all over the world; it contains works by Sodoma, Pacchia, Neroccio, Fungai, Riccio, and relics of the saint. Santa Maria di Provenzano (from 1596 onward) is a distinguished collegiate church, closely tied to the traditional Palio, rich in precious furnishings; it is the city’s only Baroque church. Santa Maria di Pontegiusta (15th century) is a singular cubic structure, with masterpieces by Marrina, Peruzzi, and Fungai. The Church of the Osservanza (Basilica of San Bernardino all’Osservanza, 15th century), destroyed in the Second World War and completely rebuilt, lies just outside the city; it houses *The Coronation of the Virgin* by Andrea della Robbia, the Reliquary of the habit of Saint Bernardino by Fra’ Antonio (1454), *Saint Elizabeth* by Benvenuto di Giovanni, and works by Sano di Pietro and Sassetta. Among the sacred sites, the oratories of the historic seventeen contrade must also be remembered, still intimately linked to the civic and religious life of Siena.

The countless pictorial and sculptural treasures scattered throughout the churches of the diocese have largely been gathered into the city’s Pinacoteca.

Venanzio Savelli

IV. Sienese art

The period of greatest splendour in Siena’s artistic traditions falls between the mid-13th century and the first decades of the 16th, roughly coinciding with the ascendancy of the free Commune. Architecture reached its peak development and distinctive autonomy during the Gothic age: indeed, the few Romanesque buildings still preserved in the city—such as the apse of San Cristoforo, the church of San Pietro alla Magione, and that of Santa Maria in Betlem—display no marked originality, though they rework Lombard motifs with a certain grace. It is rather the countryside that yields a notable series of Romanesque churches, among which stand out the collegiate church of San Gimignano, the collegiate church of Asciano, the pieve of San Quirico d’Orcia in the Val d’Orcia, and above all the famous abbey of Sant’Antimo at Castelnuovo dell’Abate, built in the 12th century by monastic craftsmen probably trained in Burgundian styles.

In the following century, however, it was from the Sienese territory that impulses for a general renewal of religious architecture radiated throughout Tuscany: the abbey church of San Galgano in the Valle della Merse, built between 1224 and 1288 and now in ruins, was among the very first examples of an Italian interpretation of transalpine Gothic and served as a model for much of the church architecture of Tuscany in the 13th and 14th centuries. Meanwhile, from 1258 onward, the Cistercian monks of San Galgano were entrusted with the construction of Siena’s greatest architectural undertaking: the Cathedral, dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta. Its interior (completed c. 1265–67) reflects with great elegance and harmonious proportions the transitional Romanesque-Gothic forms; its exterior (fac

The construction begun by Giovanni Pisano in 1284 and completed, after a very long interruption, from 1376 onward) in the extension of the choir (decided in 1317), in the underlying pieve of S. Giovanni (completed in 1325, with its façade probably designed in 1382) and above all in the grand remains of the so-called “New Cathedral,” begun by Lando di Pietro in 1339 as the longitudinal body of a vast cathedral of which the already constructed part was to form the transept (construction was halted following the plague of 1348), is an expression of the most daring Tuscan Gothic, which in Siena is adorned with wonderful decorative motifs and achieves greater dynamism than contemporary Florentine buildings. While other fourteenth-century churches in the city, and especially those of the monastic orders such as S. Francesco, S. Domenico, and the Carmine, despite their extreme simplicity of form, demonstrate the consistently high level attained by religious architecture, no less importance is given in Siena to civil and private architecture, which boasts in every square and street notable examples still perfectly preserved. From the 13th to the 14th century, Siena created its characteristic appearance, which still constitutes one of its greatest attractions. Civil buildings almost all feature, as recurring elements, the so-called “Sienese arch,” consisting of a blind, depressed arch surmounted by a pointed, falcated ogee; and from the primitive “tower houses” and the grim buildings with sparse windows and stone block facades, one passes to sumptuous palaces where stone is combined with brick, adorned with cornices, serene arches of biforas and quadriforas, and garlanded with battlements supported by slender inverted pyramid corbels. The maximum expression of this elegant architectural style is the Palazzo Pubblico (1288–1342), with its façade divided into three slightly curved sections following the shape of the marvelous Piazza del Campo, and flanked by the slender Torre del Mangia (1338–48); numerous splendid buildings reproduce, with infinite variety of particular solutions, its essential motifs (Palazzo Sansedoni, Buonsignori, Tolomei, Marescotti—now Chigi-Saracini—Salimbeni, del Capitano, etc.). Typical too is the architecture of the Sienese fountains, consisting of large basins in stone and brick covered by cross vaults (Fontebranda, Fonte Nuova, etc.) and of the city gates, of grand proportions, equipped with outer walls and crenellations (Porta Romana, Porta Pispini or S. Viene, Porta Tufi).

Gothic and Renaissance harmoniously blend in the Loggia della Mercanzia (by Sano di Matteo; 1417–1420) and in the Cappella di Piazza (1376), completed by Antonio Federighi, to whom are also owed the airy Logge del Papa and the original Palazzo dei Diavoli. Meanwhile, notable Florentine architects of the Quattrocento erected superb testimonies of the new style in the heart of this Gothic stronghold: Bernardo Rossellino, who for Pius II transformed the rustic village of Corsignano into a perfect model of a Renaissance town, creating modern-day Pienza, raised in Siena the noble mass of the Palazzo Piccolomini, imitated in the so-called “delle Papesse,” and Giuliano da Maiano began the Palazzo Spannocchi, which would serve as a model for the so-called Palazzo di S. Galgano. Few are the direct traces of the activity in his native city of the greatest Sienese architect of the Quattrocento, Francesco di Giorgio Martini; his style nonetheless is reflected in the work of Giacomo Cozzarelli (Church of the Osservanza, Dome of S. Spirito, Palazzo del Magnifico); even Baldassarre Peruzzi has few memorials in Siena (Palazzo Pollini, Castello di Belcaro), while other good Sienese architects of the 16th century were A. M. Lari, G. B. Pelori, and Bartolomeo Neroni called “il Riccio.” In the Seicento, Sienese building activity, though not intense, maintained a decorous and sober equilibrium, as demonstrated by the harmonious mass of S. Maria di Provenzano, designed by the Carthusian Fra’ D. Schifardini and executed by Flaminio del Turco. Of the 18th century are particularly characteristic the most elegant interiors of some contrada oratories and the facades of the churches of S. Giorgio and S. Vigilio.

As with architecture, one cannot speak of a Sienese school of sculpture during the Romanesque period: in fact, only after the activity carried out in Siena by Nicola and Giovanni Pisano did a local school of great importance form and develop in the first decades of the Trecento, represented by outstanding masters such as Tino di Camaino, Gano di Fazio, Goro di Gregorio, Agostino di Giovanni, Agnolo di Ventura, and Giovanni d’Agostino, while of Raimo di Paganello and Lorenzo Maitani, both active in Orvieto, no certain works are known in Siena. This splendid tradition, which suddenly waned with the plague of 1348, revived at the beginning of the 15th century with the great Jacopo della Quercia, with Francesco di Valdambrino, and with Domenico dei Cori, the latter two especially sculptors of wooden statues. Meanwhile Lorenzo Ghiberti and Donatello introduced the new Renaissance taste to Siena, modeling, with Jacopo della Quercia, the stories of the Baptismal Font of S. Giovanni: and while Antonio Federighi continued with a certain academic coldness the Quercesque tradition, the lesson of Donatello was interpreted in original and lofty ways by Lorenzo di Pietro called il Vecchietta and Francesco di Giorgio Martini.

Toward the end of the Quattrocento, a taste for decorative sculpture of fine and minute carving, rich in classical motifs, began to spread, culminating in the supremely elegant virtuosity of Lorenzo di Mariano called “il Marrina” (1476–1534). In the Cinquecento there are no other notable sculptors, except for Beccafumi, who, besides painting, successfully practiced bronze casting; and in the Baroque period the numerous members of the Mazzuoli family, from the elder Dionisio to his sons Giuseppe and Giov. Antonio and to his grandson Bartolomeo, carried out intense activity, spreading the Berninian style. Finally, in Siena was born (1817) and left some works the well-known Giovanni Dupré. But Siena’s greatest glory is that of having been the seat of a school of painting that was, especially during the 14th century, one of the most important in Europe. The fanciful and fairy-tale character of Sienese painting, which seems almost to oppose the clear rationalism of Florentine painting, is seen above all in the constant preference that Sienese masters had for color and for line understood as pure and free expression of a delicately musical and decorative sensibility. In this way, one sees set against the robust and concise language of Giotto the slender and flowery linear elegance of a Simone Martini, and against the chiaroscural and constructive volumetry of the Florentines the serene chromatic compositions of an Ambrogio Lorenzetti.

Since detailed accounts of each master’s activity are provided in the relevant entries, it will suffice to list their names in chronological and stylistic order. Thus, if the Sienese pictorial tradition begins in the mid-thirteenth century (though some place it in the first decades) with GUIDO DA SIENA, its highest and most splendid achievement unfolds between the late thirteenth century and the first half of the fourteenth with DUCCIO DI BUONINSEGNA, SIMONE MARTINI, and the two Lorenzetti brothers, PIETRO and AMBROGIO. Numerous lesser but noteworthy figures worked within the orbit of these masters: from Duccio came SEGNA DI BONAVENTURA, his son NICCOLÒ, and UGOLINO DI NERIO; from Simone Martini, LIPPO MEMMI, JACOPO DI MINO DEL PELLICCIAIO, NALDO CECCARELLI, the delicate illuminator NICCOLÒ TELGAGGIO, and ANDREA VANNI. A singular position is held by the mythical BARNA, whose frescoes in the collegiate church of San Gimignano reveal, in original reinterpretation, echoes of both Duccio and Martini.

Most late fourteenth-century painters drew upon the Lorenzettis’ achievements, though these influences were so variously combined with motifs of diverse origins that a strict classification becomes difficult. For example, the so-called “Maestro d’Ovile” is sometimes designated by the exegetical epithet Ugolino Lorenzetti because his manner blends elements derived from both UGOLINO DI NERIO and PIETRO LORENZETTI. Similarly, LIPPO VANNI, NICCOLÒ DI BUONACCORSO, and LUCA DI TOMMÈ drew—albeit with very different results—from the same Martini and Lorenzetti sources, while in BARTOLO DI FREDI and PAOLO DI GIOVANNI FEI one can discern even the latest echoes of Duccesque styles.

While the language of the great early masters survived without substantial innovation into the early decades of the fifteenth century through the eclectic manner of the prolific TADDEO DI BARTOLO and MARTINO DI BARTOLOMMEO and their followers, STEFANO DI GIOVANNI, called IL SASSETTA, proved conversant not only with contemporary currents of International Gothic taste but also with the first revolutionary novelties of Florentine Renaissance. Yet these had little impact on Sassetta himself, an artist of exquisite refinement, for SANO DI PIETRO and GIOVANNI DI PAOLO—who succeeded him as the leading Sienese painters of the Quattrocento—continued to develop, with independent idiom, the precious Gothic legacy. Nor did the new Renaissance taste gain ground with DOMENICO DI BARTOLO or PIETRO DI GIOVANNI D’AMBROGIO, for Sienese figurative culture would assimilate it much later through the mediation of LORENZO DI PIETRO, called IL VECCHIETTA, FRANCESCO DI GIORGIO MARTINI, and MATTEO DI GIOVANNI. Yet even at the threshold of the sixteenth century, a NERECCIO DI BARTOLOMEO could evoke the immaterial linearism of Simone Martini, when Sienese painting—now lacking major personalities—had assumed a character of refined eclecticism, opening itself to diverse contributions, among which the Umbrian was particularly important. In the first half of the sixteenth century, the personalities of SODOMA and BECCAFUMI dominate: the former, of Piedmontese origin and a follower of Leonardo and Raphael, and the latter to be regarded as one of the creators and foremost exponents of early Tuscan Mannerism.

By the late sixteenth century, Siena saw a multitude of painters of modest talent (one of the best being FRANCESCO VANNI, delicately Baroque), until the following century saw the emergence of RUTILIO MANETTI, one of the strongest interpreters of Italian Caravaggism. With him, essentially, the series of great Sienese painters concludes, for neither the superficial NASINI of the eighteenth century nor the nineteenth—despite its flourishing school of frescoists including MACCARI, ALDI, CASSIOLI, and FRANCHI—could equal the glory of earlier centuries. Parallel to these major arts, the so-called minor arts also flourished in Siena to an unsurpassable level of perfection. Moreover, certain techniques first took hold in Siena before elsewhere: in goldsmithing, which owes to Siena the invention of translucent enamels; in glassmaking, since the oldest and most precious example of Italian stained glass (the great “eye” of the Duomo choir, dated 1288) is Sienese; in intarsia and marble inlay, which left in the Duomo pavement a monument unparalleled in scale and imaginative fertility; while in illumination, the stylistic developments of painting were reflected on a smaller scale yet with exquisite refinement. Sienese art, apart from architecture, is almost exclusively devoted to sacred subjects, even when not intended for churches; and the favorite theme of Sienese artists at all times was the Madonna, solemnly proclaimed patron and advocate of the city on the eve of the battle of Montaperti (1260), and always the object of fervent devotion by the people and rulers of the Republic.
—See plates XXXIV–XXXVI.

Sienhsien, Diocese of. – In the central part of Hopeh Province, northern China.

It was erected on 30 May 1856 as the Apostolic Vicariate of Peking South-East (later also designated as Chi-li South-East), through division of the Diocese of Peking, which was suppressed on the same date, and was entrusted to the Society of Jesus, which for missionary work sends members of the regular province of Champagne. On 3 June 1921 it ceded territory to the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Shantung (see YENCHOW), on 3 December 1924 it took the name of the city of Sienhsien, on 24 May 1933 it ceded 10 civil subprefectures for the erection of Yung-nien (see), on 11 April 1935 it ceded another 7 for the erection of Taming (see), and on 24 April 1939, through a final division, it gave rise to the Apostolic Prefecture of Kinghisen (see). On 11 April 1946, with the erection of the episcopal hierarchy in China, it was elevated to a suffragan diocese of Peking.

It has an area of 8,400 sq. km. As of 30 June 1947, with a total population of about 2,000,000, there were 61,600 Catholics; 44 Chinese and 8 foreign priests; 35 major and 52 minor seminarians; 12 Chinese and 3 foreign lay brothers; 110 native and 12 foreign sisters. By that date, political events had already destroyed or closed the works of assistance and schools.

At the time of its erection in 1856, Sienhsien comprised 41 civil subprefectures with 9,505 faithful distributed in 132 Christian communities; three Jesuits and two Chinese secular priests were at work there. Despite every kind of obstacle, development was immediately notable and grew even more pronounced after the Boxer persecution (1900), in which 5 missionaries and 4,500 faithful were massacred: in 1870 the Catholics numbered 19,612, rising to 50,475 in 1900, to 102,390 in 1920, and to 130,910 in 1929.

Siena, Archdiocese of