Santa Maria dei Servi (Siena)

Santa Maria dei Servi — Romanesque façade.
A Church of Santa Maria dei Servi in Siena, Italy.
Church setting in Siena, Italy.

The Church of Santa Maria dei Servi is a Romanesque style, Roman Catholic church in the Terzo of San Martino in the city of Siena, Tuscany, Italy.

History

The church is built on the site of the former Church of San Clement, which was acquired by the Servite order in the Medieval era. The original Basilica was built in the 13th century, but later underwent reconstruction and transformation which continued until the 15th-16th century.[1]

Exterior

The façade is simple and unadorned, with a single doorway and a rose window (indications of another can be discerned on the wall). It is in the Romanesque period style

The adjoining Campanile is likewise of the 13th century, richly embellished by four orders of windows. It was entirely restored in the 20th century. The church building stands atop broad entrance stairs, with views over the Duomo and the Palazzo Publico of Siena.[1]

Interior

Interior.
Interior.

The interior is in great contrast with the rough and bare aspect of the exterior. A renaissance design is attributed to Baldassare Peruzzi. The church was enlarged in the fourteenth or fifteenth century, as seen in the interior of a Latin cross, where the Gothic style of the transept and apse joins the Renaissance style of the three aisles. The Renaissance style does not continue into the transept and apse, which are in the Gothic style. Near the entrance is a Crucifix of the 14th century and a Holy Water stoup of the 13th century.[1]

"Coronation of the Virgin" altarpiece panel by Bernardino Fungai.

Works of art

The most important works housed in the Santa Maria dei Servi have included :

Coronation of the Virgin altarpiece

There is speculation of a fifth panel belonging to the predella, but its whereabouts are unable to be tracked down since there is no record of it in reference works on known collections. It is not known when the Fungai predella panels were dismantled from the altarpiece of the church of Santa Maria dei Servi and then separated. There is a lack of information regarding the dates when these panels found their way into the museums where they are housed at the present.[2]

"Madonna del Bordone" by Coppo di Marcovaldo (1261 CE).

Paintings

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Siena: guide with town plan, Santini, Loretta. 1997
  2. The Fungai altarpiece in Santa Maria dei Servi in Siena, 1989
  3. Art and Architecture in Italy 1250 to 1400, 1966
Wikimedia Commons has media related to San Clemente in Santa Maria dei Servi (Siena).

Sources

— Journal title=Istituto storico O.S.M.,155:164