Description
The Church of San Raimondo al Refugio, on Via di Fieravecchia in Siena, is a small early 17th-century church with a Baroque marble facade: inside, a rare group of canvases by the leading Sienese painters of the time, almost untouched.
The walls are covered with paintings by Francesco Vanni, Alessandro Casolani, Rutilio Manetti and Rustichino. Highlights are Manetti's Stories of Saint Galgano, from 1613, and Rustichino's Saint Raymond Raising a Boy, which already shows Caravaggio's light. One canvas shows Saint Raymond walking on water.
The church was commissioned in 1601 by Aurelio Chigi, chamberlain of the Congregation of the Poor Abandoned Women, and carried on by two more members of the Chigi family. The last was Fabio Chigi, who became Pope Alexander VII: he commissioned the facade from Benedetto Giovannelli and had his coat of arms placed at the top.
Next door is the Refugio convent, which gives the church its name.
The walls are covered with paintings by Francesco Vanni, Alessandro Casolani, Rutilio Manetti and Rustichino. Highlights are Manetti's Stories of Saint Galgano, from 1613, and Rustichino's Saint Raymond Raising a Boy, which already shows Caravaggio's light. One canvas shows Saint Raymond walking on water.
The church was commissioned in 1601 by Aurelio Chigi, chamberlain of the Congregation of the Poor Abandoned Women, and carried on by two more members of the Chigi family. The last was Fabio Chigi, who became Pope Alexander VII: he commissioned the facade from Benedetto Giovannelli and had his coat of arms placed at the top.
Next door is the Refugio convent, which gives the church its name.