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The Palazzo Piccolomini (1469), designed by Bernardo Rossellino in the Florentine Renaissance style, is home to the Archivio di Stato di Siena (via Banchi di Sotto, 52). The archive hosts the Biccherne collection, the painted wood covers of the city of Siena’s account books, called the Tavolette di Biccherna.
Artists like Duccio, Simone Martini, and Ambrogio and Pietro Lorenzetti brothers invented a distinctive Sienese art style, a highly developed Gothicism that was an excellent artistic foil to the emerging Florentine Renaissance.
The state archives preserve, among other notable documents, Boccaccio’s will and Jacopo della Quercia’s contract for the Fonte Gaia. But the main thing to see is a remarkable set of wooden covers made for the city’s account books, called the Tavolette di Biccherna, painted from the 13th to the 18th century, with religious scenes and important events in Siena’s history. In the exhibition one can see biccherne paintings created by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Paolo di Giovanni Fei, Giovanni di Paolo, Sano di Pietro, Francesco di Giorgio, Francesco Vanni, Ventura Salimbeni, Francesco Rustici said "Rustichino" etc..
A narrow balcony offers a magnificent view onto the Piazza di Campo.
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Siena
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| Palazzo Piccolomini, Siena, ferri con crescenti (Banchi di Sotto, Siena)[1] |
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Siena - Via Banchi di Sotto |
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Palazzo Piccolomini, Siena, stemma Piccolomini (Banchi di Sotto, Siena)[1]
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La Biccherna
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The biccherne, the painted covers of the state ledgers or administrative balance sheets, provide a fascinating window into the daily life of an Italian city-state and evolving republic at the dawn of modern economic thinking. These remarkable works of art derive their name, biccherne, from the government agency that originally commissioned them, La Biccherna.
Although biccherne were still occasionally commissioned into the 17th century, Siena's loss of independent power was reflected in the declining relevance of this art form.
Archivio di Stato | Palazzo Piccolomini
Via Banchi di Sotto 52 (btw. Via Banchi di Sotto and Via del Porrione at Via Rinaldini). Head down the corridor off the left of the courtyard, and take the elevator to the fourth floor.
Archivio di Stato di Siena | www.archiviostato.si.it
Free admission. Mon–Sat 9am–1pm. Archives open Mon–Fri, 4 hourly viewings:
9:30, 10:30, and 11:30am, and 12:30pm. Bus: A (pink), B, N, 22, 25, 26, or 27.
Art in Tuscany | Sienese Biccherna Covers | Biccherne Senesi
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 Siena offering of the keys of the city to the Madonna delle Grazie. Siena, Archivio di Stato, Museo delle Tavolette di Biccherne |
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| Giovanni di Paolo, Annunciazione, Pinacoteca Vaticano, Roma |
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Francesco di Giorgio Martini (1439–1501), Pio II impone il cappello cardinalizio al nipote Francesco Piccolomini Todeschini
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Francesco di Giorgio Martini, Madonna del Terremoto, 1467, Archivo di Stato, Siena |
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Francesco di Giorgio Martini, Madonna del Terremoto, detail, 1467, Archivo di Stato, Siena
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LE BICCHERNE DI SIENA Arte e finanza all’alba dell’economia moderna (SIENA’S BICCHERNA COVERS Art and finance at the dawn of the modern economy, edited by ALESSANDRO TOMEI, Rome, Retablo, 2002 (vol. I: 301 + 1 pp.; vol. II: 243 + 1 pp.).
Siena | Archivio di Stato di Siena, de verzameling tavolette di Biccherna in het Palazzo Piccolomini
Art in Tuscany | Sienese Biccherna panelen in the Archivio di Stato van Siena Le Biccherne tra arte ed amministrazione | www.iltesorodisiena.net
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