Simone Martini was an Italian painter born in Siena. He was a major figure in the development of early Italian painting and greatly influenced the development of the International Gothic style.
Jacopo della Quercia, also known as Jacopo di Pietro d'Agnolo di Guarnieri, was an Italian sculptor of the Renaissance, a contemporary of Brunelleschi, Ghiberti and Donatello. He is considered a precursor of Michelangelo.
Palio is the name given in Italy to an annual athletic contest, very often of a historical character, pitting the neighbourhoods of a town or the hamlets of a comune against each other. Typically, they are fought in costume and commemorate some event or tradition of the Middle Ages and thus often involve horse racing, archery, jousting, crossbow shooting, and similar medieval sports. Once purely a matter of local rivalries, many have now become events that are staged with an eye to visitors and foreign tourists.
The Palio di Siena, from Latin pallium, plural form: Palii, is a horse race that is held twice each year, on 2 July and 16 August, in Siena, Italy. Ten horses and riders, bareback and dressed in the appropriate colours, represent ten of the seventeen contrade, or city wards. The Palio held on 2 July is named Palio di Provenzano, in honour of the Madonna of Provenzano, a Marian devotion particular to Siena which developed around an icon from the Terzo Camollia area of the city. The Palio held on 16 August is named Palio dell'Assunta, in honour of the Assumption of Mary.
The Torre del Mangia is a tower in Siena, in the Tuscany region of Italy. Built in 1338-1348, it is located in the Piazza del Campo, Siena's main square, next to the Palazzo Pubblico. When built it was one of the tallest secular towers in medieval Italy. At 102 m it is now Italy's second tallest after Cremona Cathedral's Torrazzo, the Asinelli tower in Bologna at 97 m being third.
Piazza del Campo is the main public space of the historic center of Siena, Tuscany, Italy and is regarded as one of Europe's greatest medieval squares. It is renowned worldwide for its beauty and architectural integrity. The Palazzo Pubblico and its Torre del Mangia, as well as various palazzi signorili surround the shell-shaped piazza. At the northwest edge is the Fonte Gaia.
A contrada is generally a district within the Italian countryside. In the city of Siena, the term indicates the 17 urban wards, whose representatives race on horseback in the Palio di Siena, run twice every year in July and August. Each sienese contrada is named after an animal or symbol, with a long history and complicated heraldic and semi-mythological associations.
A carroccio was a large four-wheeled wagon bearing the city signs around which the militia of the medieval communes gathered and fought. It was particularly common among the Lombard, Tuscan and, more generally, northern Italian municipalities. Later its use spread even outside Italy. It was the symbol of municipal autonomy. Priests celebrated Mass at the altar before the battle, and the trumpeters beside them encouraged the fighters to the fray.
The Republic of Siena was a historic state consisting of the city of Siena and its surrounding territory in Tuscany, central Italy. It existed for over 400 years, from 1125 to 1555. During its existence, it gradually expanded throughout southern Tuscany becoming one of the major economic powers of the Middle Ages, and one of the most important commercial, financial and artistic centers in Europe.
Astolfo Petrazzi (1583–1665) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in his hometown of Siena, but also Spoleto and Rome. He was a pupil of mainly Francesco Vanni, but also worked under Ventura Salimbeni and Pietro Sorri. He died in Siena.
Siena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.
The Corteo Storico is a historical costume parade in Siena, Tuscany, Italy. It takes place before the famous horse race known as the Palio on the 2nd of July and on August 16, each year.
The Pinacoteca Nazionale is a national museum in Siena, Tuscany, Italy. Inaugurated in 1932, it houses especially late medieval and Renaissance paintings from Italian artists. It is housed in the Brigidi and Buonsignori palaces in the city's center: the former, built in the 14th century, it is traditionally identified as the Pannocchieschi family's residence. The Palazzo Bichi-Buonsignori, although built in the 15th century, has a 19th-century neo-medieval façade based on the city's Palazzo Pubblico.
Bartolomeo Neroni, also known as Il Riccio or Riccio Sanese (c.1505-1571) was an Italian painter, sculptor, architect and engineer of the Sienese School. He was born and died in Siena.
Antonio Federighi was an Italian architect and sculptor of the Renaissance period. He was born and active mainly in Siena, Italy.
Meo di Pero, also called Meo di Piero was an Italian painter active in Siena in a Gothic style. He worked in the studio of Cristoforo di Bindoccio. All the latter paintings are generally co-attributed to Meo, since no independent work is known.
Guccio di Mannaia was an Italian goldsmith from Siena, Italy active from 1288 to 1322. He is best known for a 13th-century decorated gold-plated chalice which contains the first documented use of translucent enamels using the technique known as basse-taille.
Pietro di Giovanni D'Ambrogio was an Italian painter of the Sienese school.
"Canto della Verbena", officially "E mentre Siena dorme" and also known simply as "la Verbena", is a traditional song from the city of Siena, Italy. Its common title and lyrics refer to the verbena plant, which, according to local folklore, grew within the Piazza del Campo thanks to the presence of the Bottini di Siena, a series of underground tunnels used to provision the city with water in the mediaeval period. Today, "la Verbena" has become a hymn to the city of Siena, and is popularly sung at sporting events like those of the Palio di Siena and of the local Robur Siena football club.
Ricciardo Meacci was an Italian (Sienese) painter from the school of "Purismo" who came under the influence of the "Pre-Raphaelite" movement. He received several commissions for mural paintings, examples of which survive in the grand buildings of his native city of Siena. He is more widely-known, however, for his compressed but florid watercolour and gouache images of Christian devotional subjects, and moralized, allegorical scenes upon classical and romantic themes, original in composition but making reference to the Sienese quattrocento. These formal paintings, often conceived as triptychs, were cased in ornamental frames of modelled plaster, gilt, and applied pilaster arcading, and with openwork carving or finials, combining techniques and materials after the manner of the Arts and Crafts movement. For such works he had patrons among the royal houses of Europe, and examples are in the British Royal Collections. His watercolour studies of architectural corners and spaces in Venice and Florence are populated by incidental figures in daily costume.
