APPENDICES

6. Illustrious individuals buried at the Osservanza

Francesco di Giorgio Martini

Born in Siena in 1439, he began work as a painter, together with Neroccio di Bartolomeo, after training in the workshop of Il Vecchietta. He made a thorough study of the ancient monuments of Rome (two of his sketch books have survived). He seems to have absorbed the innovations of Donatello in sculpture early on (see the statue of St John in the Cathedral Museum). In 1477 he was in Urbino, in the service of Federico III di Montefeltro, to complete the Palazzo Ducale which had been begun by Laurana. Federico, and his son Guidobaldo, commissioned over 100 civil engineering projects, and especially military engineering projects, from Martini: The landscape of a very large area of Le Marche region is marked by fortifications which he either built, or restored, in accordance with innovatory criteria, from Sassocorvaro to Mondaio and San Leo. In Urbino he designed the Cathedral and the Church of San Bernardino, and in Iesi he designed the Palazzo della Signoria. His pupil and collaborator Iacopo Cozzarelli was with him. In 1484 he designed the Calcinaio church for Cortona, the town of Signorelli, while his reputation was now getting him commissions in northern Italy and southern Italy for drawings of original architectural works, or restorations of prestigious monuments. Added to this extraordinary degree of activity was his work as a writer of treatises and a sculptor working in bronze (the Cathedral angels, the Flagellation (Perugia), and the deposition (Venice)) and in wood (the Baptist in the Cathedral Museum). His output as a painter was linked to the city of Siena, with the first work which can be dated with certainty being the miniature from the De Animalibus codex by Alberto Magno, at the Osservanza (1462), and continuing with the furniture panels showing Biblical scenes, and the altar-pieces with the Coronation of the Virgin and the Nativity, now in the Pinacoteca, and with the Adoration of the Shepherds in the Church of San Domenico. As of 1498 he was master builder at the Cathedral, and he returned on a fixed basis to Siena, which was now dominated by Pandolfo, living on one of his estates near the monastery of the Osservanza, where he died in 1501. It is likely that he inspired, or directed, or in any case thoroughly revised the plans of the Osservanza church in the form in which it has been restored today.

Iacopo Cozzarelli

Born in Siena in 1453, he was a painter (the only work attributed to him is the figure of the Eternal Father in the frame of the Nativity by Francesco di Giorgio in the Pinacoteca), but above all he was an architect and a sculptor, working in bronze, terracotta, and wood. As of 1471 he collaborated with Martini, and in 1477 he followed him to Urbino, where it appears that he specialized in friezes, column capitals, and corbels, which he executed in the Palazzo Ducale. In 1487 he returned to Siena with Francesco, where he completed the Cathedral door angels. Works dating to this period are the Villa a Sesta Madonna, St Catherine in the Church of San Gerolamo, St Margaret in the church of San Matteo outside Porta Tufi, and the St Christopher in the Louvre. The extension of the Osservanza monastery, desired by Pandolfo Petrucci, together with the construction of his mausoleum, came after the fortifications of Montepulciano. The monastery Vestry is his masterpiece, especially if considered together with the Lament, perhaps designed to stand over the tomb of Pandolfo himself. The Quercegrossa Pieta came a few years later. In 1509 work was completed on the building which he designed on Via dei Pellegrini as the residence of Pandolfo, the building known as Palazzo del Magnifico, with its famous bronze rings on the facade. Tombstones are attribued to him (including the tombstone of the rector of S Maria della Scala, Iacopo Tondi, on the wall on the left of the first entrance hall of the hospital) and other statues and bas-reliefs in the province and the city (the Pieta in the triumphal arch of the Chiesa dei Servi). In Pienza he worked on the consolidation of the Cathedral after the cliff subsided, the effects of which can still be seen today. He died in 1515.

Guidoccio Cozzarelli

The cousin of Iacopo, he was born in 1450 and began his work with small commissions from the Spedale della Scala at least as early as 1470. All the original fresco decorations are lost. His earliest surviving works are dated to 1481-2: These are the 42 figures of the patriarchs and prophets painted with others in the blind gallery at the base of the inside of the dome of the Cathedral of Siena, and the Madonna with San Girolamo in the Pinacoteca. Over the following years he illuminated anthem books in the same Cathedral, achieving a very high standard in his work, both in terms of his use of colour and for the exceptional details of the scenes in a very small amount of space. In 1483 he executed the drawing of the Libyan Sibyl on the floor. From 1483 to 1486 he painted a Madonna with Saints, and the more famous Baptism of Jesus for the monastery of San Bernardino in Sinalunga. Also from this period is the Madonna with Child, St Margaret and St Catherine of Alexandria, which is now in Budapest. The Ancaiano altar-piece, the Pitigliano altar-piece, and the St Sebastian in the Siena Pinacoteca date to the 1490s. Also worthy of mention are the Madonna and Saints in the church of St Michael in Paganico, the design for the windows for the Church of Fontegiusta in Siena, and his important work as a painter of ‘biccherna’ panels. He died in 1506 or 1507. He excelled above all else as an illuminator, while his larger-scale works, however high their standard, show less effectiveness in the choice of colours and in the details of the clothing and in his handling of chiaroscuro.

Pietro di Francesco Orioli

Praised by Sigismondo Tizio, a Sienese historian, who put his death at an early age at 1496, at the age of 38, he is an important presence in painting in Siena, but it still needs to be clarified in the certainty of attributions. The traditional attributions (Christ washing the feet of the Apostles, in the Baptistery, and the painting in the Room of Peace in Palazzo Pubblico) are currently added to by other works which were earlier attributed generally to Pacchiarotto: These works, including the fresco at the Osservanza, bring this artist closer to the circle of Francesco di Giorgio. His family owned rural property near Capriola, at least two of which were left to the monastery.

Pandolfo Petrucci

“Pandolfo Petrucci, prince of Siena, maintained his state more with those whom he was suspicious of than with others,” as Machiavelli said of him, having got to know him through diplomatic missions carried out in Siena at the time of the domination of Pandolfo, and on account of having attended his funeral in 1512. He was born in 1452 and spent years in exile together with the Noveschi faction. In 1487 he returned to Siena, rapidly taking over control of the city. Cruel toward his adversaries (he even had his father-in-law killed), and skilled in intrigue, by means of which he kept the city’s notables in check, he nevertheless had uncommon diplomatic talents. He maneuvered, along with his adviser Antonio, who was likewise held in high esteem by Machiavelli, between the threats of the King of France and of Cesare Borgi, against whom he took part in the Magione conspiracy. When Siena wsas threatened by Borgia, at the height of his questionable power, he withdrew from the city in 1503 before returning unopposed a few months later. He later succeeded in skilfully maneuvering in the Italian political world in the days of Giulio II and Emperor Maximilian. He kept the Florentines at bay, but in 1511 he had to hand Montepulciano over to Florence. The Osservanza is now the most tangible proof of his patronage of the arts, once the top-quality frescoes (Pinturicchio and Genca) which used to adorn the interiors of Palazzo del Magnifico, which was built for him in Siena from plans drawn up by Iacopo Cozzarelli, had disappeared.

Bernardino Perfetti

An interesting witness of a part of the Italian culture of the 18^th century that is often forgotten, improvised oral poetry, which was not without success in the salons and in the academies. He was honoured in the Rome of Arcadia, by a poetical coronation in Campidoglio (in the heart of Rome), an honor previously given to Petrarch as well, albeit in a different context. We learn from Goldoni, in his Memoirs, in terms that are enthusiastic to say the least, that he attended one of his performances of improvised poetry in Siena. A reader in canonical and civilian law in Siena, he never wrote a single verse, nor did he allow others to transcribe his improvisations: By means of skillful stratagems several of his improvised compositions were transcribed during the performance itself: Only in this way can we admire his exceptional ability to compose verses along the lines of subjects chosen by the public, ranging from scientific matters to pastoral and religious subjects. He lived in Siena from 1681 to 1747, when “his body, accompanied by the assembly of the Knights of St Stephen, with his poet’s crown on his head, as far as the gates of the city, was transported to be buried in the church of the Grey-Friars of the Osservanza, one mile away from the walls of Siena.” A marble bust of him leans out from the wall of the Cathedral, to the left of the Chapel of the Vow.