Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, Siena

The facade (by Giovanni Pisano, 1284-99) is one of the finest achievements of Italian Gothic, with a beautiful polychrome facing of white, green and red marble. Almost its whole width is taken up by three doorways of equal height surmounted by pediments, with a slender tower at each end. Above the central doorway is a rose-window. The facade is richly decorated with sculptured figures, almost all now replaced by copies. The mosaics in the pediments, with a gold ground, were done by Venetian artists in 1877-78. In the angle between the nave and the right-hand transept is the Romanesque campanile; its facing of horizontally banded dark- and light- colored marble gives it an astonishing lightness, an effect reinforced by the six orders of windows, increasing in number as they go up. In the lunette of the doorway at the foot of the tower is a bas-relief of the Virgin and Child (the Madonna del Perdono), attributed to Donatello (15th century). Over the crossing of the original church, on a hexagonal drum, is the dome, which was completed before the heightening of the nave, so that the drum appears to be set into the roof of the nave. Beyond the end of the right-hand transept are fragments of the new cathedral which was never completed: the five-bayed northeastern aisle (now occupied by the Cathedral Museum), the Facciatone (Giant Facade) and three bays of the southwest wall of the nave, which enclose the Piazza Iácopo della Quercia. Much of the left-hand wall of the old cathedral is concealed by the Piccolómini Library. On a column at the left-hand end of the steps leading up to the cathedral is the She-Wolf with Romulus and Remus (copy: original in Cathedral Museum).

With its regular alternation of courses of black and white marble, the interior of the cathedral (89.40m/293ft long) has a rather overpowering effect, though this is relieved by the painting of the ceiling with gold stars on a blue ground. The nave is separated from the aisles by piers bearing tall round-headed arches. Above these runs a cornice with busts of Christ and 171 Popes (down to Lucius III), and in the spandrels of the arches are busts of 36 Roman Emperors (terracotta, 15th-16th centuries). At the point where the nave reaches the crossing can be seen part of the dwarf gallery which encircles the drum of the dome. The inner wall of the façade has reliefs depicting the life of the Virgin (1483) and the legend of Sant'Ansano (c. 1480); the stained glass (1549) in the rose-window depicts the Last Supper. There is also a stained-glass window in the choir.

The pavement of the Siena cathedral is a work of unique interest and beauty, with 56 panels depicting Sibyls, Biblical scenes, allegories, etc. Over the 200 years (from about 1370) which it took to complete the work the artists' techniques were steadily refined. At first they merely scratched out the design in the marble and then filled in the lines with asphalt, but later they increasingly tended to use different colored marbles in intarsia or mosaic techniques.

In the left-hand transept is the Cappella San Giovanni Battista (Chapel of St John the Baptist), with a beautiful doorway by Lorenzo di Mariano (1476-1534). In the chapel are a bronze statue of John the Baptist by Donatello (1457) and a statue of St Catherine of Alexandria by Neroccio (1487). The frescoes (scenes from the life of the Baptist and two portraits) are by Pinturicchio.

In the left-hand aisle of the cathedral in Siena is the entrance to the Piccolómini Library. The entrance wall (by Lorenzo di Mariano, 1497) is a fine example of High Renaissance decorative sculpture. A bronze grille gives access to the library, one of the finest and best-preserved creations of the Early Renaissance. Begun in 1495, it was built for Cardinal Francesco Piccolómini (later Pope Pius III) in honor of his kinsman Enea Silvio (Aeneas Sylvius) Piccolómini (Pope Pius II, 1458-64).

The white marble pulpit by Niccola Pisano and pupils (1256-68) is one of the finest works of art in the cathedral. Octagonal in shape, it is borne on nine columns of granite, porphyry and green marble. The outer columns stand alternately on the base and on figures of lions, the inner ones on allegories of the Seven Liberal Arts and Philosophy. Above the capitals are personifications of the Virtues. On the parapet of the pulpit are seven magnificently carved reliefs: the Nativity, the Adoration of the Kings, the Flight into Egypt, the Slaughter of the Innocents, the Crucifixion and the Last Judgment, with the Elect, and the Damned. The steps leading up to the pulpit were added in the 16th century.

The presbytery is dominated by the large marble altar by Baldassare Peruzzi (1532), over which is a bronze ciborium by Vecchietta (1467-72), flanked by angels carrying candles. The apse has frescoes by various 16th and 17th century artists; on some of them 19th century restoration is very evident. The carved choir-stalls, in Late Gothic style, date from 1363 to 1397; of the original 90 stalls only 36 remain. Behind the stalls are richly decorative intarsia panels by Fra Giovanni da Verona (1503).

A door on the left-hand side of the presbytery leads into the sacristy. In three chapels at the far end are remains of 15th century frescoes. High up in the wall of the choir is a circular window with what is believed to be the oldest stained glass in Italy, depicting the Burial, Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin, with the Four Evangelists and Siena's four Patron Saints. The window, originally made in 1288, was moved to its present position in 1365.

In the right transept is the entrance to the Cappella Chigi (Chigi Chapel) or Cappella della Madonna del Voto (Chapel of the Madonna of the Vow), which was built in 1659-62 to the design of the great Baroque architect Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini. Of the four statues in the chapel two ("St Jerome" and "The Magdalene") are by Bernini; the other two ("San Bernardino" and "St Catherine of Siena") are by his pupils.

The campanile originally stood outside the cathedral, in the angle between the nave and the right transept, but with the enlargement of the cathedral it is now within the main structure. On the wall above the doorway leading from the last bay of the right-hand aisle into the base of the campanile is the Monument of Bishop Tommaso Piccolómini del Testa by Neroccio (1484).

The baptistery is a few steps lower down than the crypt. It was constructed when the choir was extended and underbuilding was necessary to compensate for the fall in the ground; the baptistery has, therefore, something of the aspect of a crypt. The groined vaulting is borne on squat pillars and is wholly covered with frescoes, originally painted about 1450 by Vecchietta (Lorenzo di Pietro, 1412-80) and other artists but now almost devoid of artistic value as a result of clumsy restoration in the late 19th century. In front of the apse, on a stepped hexagonal base, is a marble font fashioned in 1417-30, probably by Iácopo della Quercia. The six sides of the font have bronze reliefs of scenes from the life of John the Baptist by Iácopo della Quercia, Giovanni di Turino, Lorenzo Ghiberti and Donatello. On the canopy of the font is a marble statue of the Baptist.

The crypt is reached by going round the outside of the right transept and through the doorway in the first bay of the unfinished new cathedral. The entrance to the crypt is on the first landing of the staircase. In the first room are the originals of statues on the cathedral, now replaced by copies, and in the second are remains of late 13th century frescoes of New Testament scenes.

The Cathedral Museum is housed in three bays of the nave of the new cathedral. Practically all the items on show come from the cathedral. Among the museum's many treasures are reliefs by Nicola Pisano, works by Giovanni Pisano or from his workshop, a magnificent relief of the Virign and Child with St Antony and Cardinal Casini by Iácopo della Quercia, sculpture by Giovanni Pisano from the facade of the cathedral and a number of panel-paintings, including Duccio di Buoninsegna's famous "Maestà", Pietro Lorenzetti's "Birth of the Virgin" and the 13th century "Madonna dagli Occhi Grossi" (Madonna with the Large Eyes). In the Treasury are reliquaries (notably the silver-gilt reliquary for the head of San Galgano and the gilt-bronze Reliquary of St Clement), sculpture in wood, etc.Maesta should be seperate.