Siena, Art Gallery

Pinacoteca (State Art Gallery) is hosted in Palazzo Buonsignori  in Via San Pietro no. 29, not far from Piazza del Duomo. It is an imposing building  and is one of the finest Sienese Gothic architectures dating back to the 14th C. It is made of brick on a stone basement with blind arches on the lower part of the building; the first and second storey have a triple windows and are separated from one another by a cornice with little arches. Marble embrasure with sculptured busts are on the battlements.  Thanks to its 38 rooms and roughly 700 paintings is a most complete and satisfactory compendium of Sienese painting from very earliest times, through its evolution.

Here a list of most important works of art :

• The "Madonna of the Franciscans" by Duccio di Buoninsegna.
   

• "Enthroned Madonna with the Holy Child surrounded by six Angels and six Saints" by Ambrogio Lorenzetti; this is an unmistakable masterpiece. The harmonic lines of the figures stand out in relief on the pleasant chromatic ground where gold used as a color prevails.
   

• "St. Mary Magdalene" by Duccio di Buoninsegna ; a very precious work for the rare beauty of the style and expression ( remark the beautiful head of the Madonna )
   

• "Madonna and child" by Maestro di Badia a Isola is another exquisite work of art.
   

• "Madonna with St. Dorothy and St. Mary Magdalene" by Ambrogio Lorenzetti ( the two Saints are paying homages to the Virgin. St. Dorothy, the sweeter of the two figure is carrying cornflower and other bright colored flowers, St. Magdalene is offering scented ornaments.
   

• The "Madonna and Holy Child" by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, representing a scene full of human feeling.
   

• The Annunciation by A. Lorenzetti ; ( This work has often been discussed and compared with the famous Annunciation painted by Simone Martini , now in the Uffizi Picture Gallery in Florence. Ambrogio makes us feel the presence of Divinity through the exaltation of the plastic perspective and expressive values as if all the resources of human spirituality were exaggerated ; with Simone Martini, instead, the beauty of his linearism reaches the form of a dream and tries to escape from the world be it spiritual or corporeal; it is pure mysticism.
   

• The Adoration of the Magi, by Bartolo di Fredi is one of the author's masterpieces remarkable for the animation of the details and the bright enamel-like decoration.
   

• "Madonna with the Holy Child" by Lippo Memmi it is one of the best works produces by this worthy disciple of Simone Martini.

• "Christ Suffering and Christ Triumphant", by Giovanni di Paolo; The mastery of the drawing and chiaroscuro is remarkable, especially in the face of Christ Suffering.
   

• "Madonna and Child" by Simone Martini, painted some time between 1320 and 1325. It was discovered in 1957 beneath a worthless 16th Century work and is one of this Master's most remarkable productions.
   

• "Christ bound to the Column", this picture is considered to be Sodoma's masterpiece( delightful is the fluidity of the colors, the beauty of the chiaroscuro and, above all the subdued imploring expression in the exhausted eyes of Christ.
   

• "Jesus in Limbo", by Beccafumi is a masterpiece of color , light, form and composition. It is complex and new, the style is perfect.
  
  
  Other works of art by several painters : Guido da Siena, Margaritone di Arezzo, Niccolò di Segna, Ugolino di Nerio, Segna di Bonaventura, Pietro Lorenzetti, Paolo di Giovanni Fei, Jacopo di Mino del Pellicciaio, Maestro di San Pietro a Ovile, Maestro di San Lucchese, Taddeo di Bartolo, Maestro di Città di Castello, Maestro di Cianciano, Spinello Aretino, Andrea di Bartolo, Giovanni di Paolo, Guidoccio Cozzarelli, Bernardo Daddi, Antonio Veneziano, Mariotto di NardoGiovanni del Biondo, Lorenzo Monaco, Stefano di Giovanni nicknamed Sassetta, Matteo di Giovanni, Neroccio di Bartolomeo Landi, Francesco di Giorgio Martini, Bernardino Fungai, Lippo Memmi, Lorenzo di Pietro nicknamed Vecchietta, Sano di Pietro, Giacomo Pacchiarotti, Girolamo da Cremona, Rutilio Manetti, Giorgio Vasari, Andrea Piccinalli nicknamed Brescianino, Domenico Beccafumi, Giovanni Antonio Bazzi called Sodoma, Albrecth Durer, P.P. Rubens, Padovanino, Bernardo Strozzi and other minor artists.