Sano di Pietro's Assunta polyptych for the Convent of Santa Petronilla in Siena

Abstract

Since its incorporation into Siena's first public art collection early in the nineteenth century, the provenance of Sano di Pietro's polyptych of The Virgin of the Assumption with Saints has been recognised as the Clarissan church of Santa Petronilla. To date, however, there has been very little comment as to the significance of the provenance of the altarpiece, particularly in relation to the choice of subject matter. This essay explores the complex history of this major Clarissan foundation in Siena, identifying its first location beyond Siena's principal northern gate of Porta Camollia and then describing its subsequent removal during the mid sixteenth century into the safety of the city itself and to the church where the altarpiece was discovered in 1810. Recognising that the presence of a Clarissan donor figure on the central painting of the polyptych provides plausible evidence that the altarpiece was commissioned for the original convent church, the essay further demonstrates how the circumstances of the foundation of Santa Petronilla in the second decade of the thirteenth century provide a key for the principal subject matter of the altarpiece. The remaining imagery of the altarpiece is then discussed in terms of its general relevance for a fifteenth‐century community of Clarissan nuns and for the particular devotional concerns of the nuns of Santa Petronilla. It is argued that this late fifteenth‐century Sienese altarpiece offers a revealing example of the way in which art commissioned by enclosed orders of female religious within Renaissance Italy could be closely related to their own concerns and priorities. (pp. 433–457)

Guercino's Saint Petronilla: Saintly Body, Michelangelo, and New St Peter's

“…17 Other than the predella of a fifteenth-century Sienese altarpiece, where Petronilla is shown serving guests, the Saint lacked any iconography, especially that conducive to the Counter-Reformation zeal for pious spectacle. 18 Reformers like the Bolognese archbishop Cardinal Gabriele Paleotti worried that unconventional iconography, such as the 'chief of apostles' visiting his infirm daughter, 'would doubtless stimulate more wandering fantasy in the mind than devotion'. 19 No gruesome demise, no great feat or miraculous act or vision, Petronilla's quietly willed death was the badge of sanctity, according her the status of a spiritual martyr.…”

“…60 Although the adjacency of statue to relics in the rotunda was brief -demolition of the structure began in 1514 to make way for New St Peter's and was complete before 1520 -Michelangelo's sculpture and the Saint's remains were occasionally returned to close proximity as they were relocated to various altars and chapels of the old and new basilica. Around the time of the rotunda's demolition the Pietà and the Saint appear to have been moved to undisclosed locations in the neighbouring ancient rotunda of St Andrew, where they remained for different durations ('e' in plate 18). Sometime between 1517 and 1524 the Pietà was transferred into the Secretarium of Gregory the Great (also known as Santa Maria della Febbre), a rectangular chapel at the south-east corner of the nave of Old St Peter's ('dd'), and placed at the first altar to the right of the primary entrance ('148').…”