Description
The Baptistery of San Giovanni is the little church hidden beneath the apse of Siena Cathedral: you reach it from the steps of Piazza San Giovanni, behind the cathedral. Outside it has a white marble facade left half-finished; inside it keeps one of the most important baptismal fonts of the early Renaissance and vaults frescoed from end to end.
Its position has a very practical reason. In 1317 the Opera del Duomo wanted to extend the choir by two bays, but behind it the ground dropped steeply away. So they built underneath, a new building whose ceiling could carry the choir floor. Camaino di Crescentino finished it in 1325.
The facade was begun by Domenico di Agostino in 1355, in pure Sienese Gothic style, and stopped in 1382: the upper part is unfinished, the lower part unpolished. In front of the three portals, the floor has fifteenth-century marble designs on the theme of baptism, now worn down by footsteps.
Inside, in the center, stands the hexagonal baptismal font, in marble, bronze and enamel, made between 1417 and 1431. The greatest sculptors of the time worked on it.
Donatello signed the panel of the Feast of Herod and the statues of Faith and Hope, Lorenzo Ghiberti two panels on the life of the Baptist, and Jacopo della Quercia the statue of the Baptist on top.
Look up and the vaults are covered with one of the finest religious cycles of fifteenth-century Siena.
The twelve scenes of the Articles of the Creed are almost all by Vecchietta, who began in 1450: God the Father, the Annunciation, the Descent into Hell, the Last Judgment, Pentecost. They are the profession of faith asked of those who were baptized.
In the first bay, the two side vaults show eight of the twelve Apostles, attributed to the Bolognese painter Agostino di Marsiglio; the other four, in the center, are by Vecchietta.
On either side of the apse, two lunettes: the Miracles of Saint Anthony of Padua by Benvenuto di Giovanni, from around 1460, and the Washing of the Feet by Pietro degli Orioli, from 1489.
In the apse Vecchietta also painted the Annunciation, the Flagellation and the Road to Calvary. Higher up, three scenes of the Passion were frescoed in 1447 by Michele di Matteo Lambertini, a Bolognese painter of late Gothic training.
The baptistery is small but full: after the font and the frescoes, there is still the polyptych by Andrea Vanni with the predella by Giovanni di Paolo, and the Baptism of Jesus by the Brescianini, from 1524.
Don't miss
• The baptismal font.
• Donatello's Feast of Herod.
• Vecchietta's Articles of the Creed.
Did you know?
• The baptistery was built to support the cathedral's choir, not for baptisms: the slope of the ground left only one solution.
• The font took fourteen years and at least five different artists.
Its position has a very practical reason. In 1317 the Opera del Duomo wanted to extend the choir by two bays, but behind it the ground dropped steeply away. So they built underneath, a new building whose ceiling could carry the choir floor. Camaino di Crescentino finished it in 1325.
The facade was begun by Domenico di Agostino in 1355, in pure Sienese Gothic style, and stopped in 1382: the upper part is unfinished, the lower part unpolished. In front of the three portals, the floor has fifteenth-century marble designs on the theme of baptism, now worn down by footsteps.
Inside, in the center, stands the hexagonal baptismal font, in marble, bronze and enamel, made between 1417 and 1431. The greatest sculptors of the time worked on it.
Donatello signed the panel of the Feast of Herod and the statues of Faith and Hope, Lorenzo Ghiberti two panels on the life of the Baptist, and Jacopo della Quercia the statue of the Baptist on top.
Look up and the vaults are covered with one of the finest religious cycles of fifteenth-century Siena.
The twelve scenes of the Articles of the Creed are almost all by Vecchietta, who began in 1450: God the Father, the Annunciation, the Descent into Hell, the Last Judgment, Pentecost. They are the profession of faith asked of those who were baptized.
In the first bay, the two side vaults show eight of the twelve Apostles, attributed to the Bolognese painter Agostino di Marsiglio; the other four, in the center, are by Vecchietta.
On either side of the apse, two lunettes: the Miracles of Saint Anthony of Padua by Benvenuto di Giovanni, from around 1460, and the Washing of the Feet by Pietro degli Orioli, from 1489.
In the apse Vecchietta also painted the Annunciation, the Flagellation and the Road to Calvary. Higher up, three scenes of the Passion were frescoed in 1447 by Michele di Matteo Lambertini, a Bolognese painter of late Gothic training.
The baptistery is small but full: after the font and the frescoes, there is still the polyptych by Andrea Vanni with the predella by Giovanni di Paolo, and the Baptism of Jesus by the Brescianini, from 1524.
Don't miss
• The baptismal font.
• Donatello's Feast of Herod.
• Vecchietta's Articles of the Creed.
Did you know?
• The baptistery was built to support the cathedral's choir, not for baptisms: the slope of the ground left only one solution.
• The font took fourteen years and at least five different artists.