Description
The Loggia della Mercanzia, also known as the Loggia dei Mercanti or di San Paolo, is an elegant three-arched portico at the back of Piazza del Campo, at the spot called Croce del Travaglio. Via Banchi di Sopra, Via Banchi di Sotto and Via di Città meet here, and the Via Francigena ran along two of them.
It was the seat of the Arte della Mercanzia, the guild of merchants of the Republic of Siena, and you can see why: at the crossing of the main streets the merchants stood where the people passed. It was conceived as an enlargement and embellishment of that seat.
The finest thing is the five statues of saints, in the tabernacles of the pillars. Saint Peter and Saint Paul, on the outer pillars, are by Vecchietta (1458-1462). The other three show Saint Savinus, Saint Ansanus and Saint Victor, three of the four ancient patron saints of Siena, and are by Antonio Federighi (1458-1459).
Comparing the two sculptors is instructive: Federighi is inspired by the powerful figures of Jacopo della Quercia and by classical art, while Vecchietta, closer to Donatello, gives his figures an emotional character.
On the short sides there are two marble benches. The more interesting one is the one on the right, by Federighi, with figures from Roman history (1459-1464); the one on the left is by Urbano da Cortona (around 1462).
Look up and you see the cross vaults, with 16th-century stucco and decorative frescoes, retouched in the 19th century. The first on the left is by Pastorino dei Pastorini (1549-1552), the second and third by Lorenzo Rustici (1553-1563).
The building site dragged on. Designed by Sano di Matteo, the loggia was built between 1417 and 1428 under his direction, then until 1444 under Pietro del Minella. Almost thirty years of work, and in the meantime taste had changed: the style sits halfway between Gothic and Renaissance.
The vaults came in the 16th century and the upper floor over the Croce del Travaglio in the 17th. In the hall upstairs there is a monochrome by Luigi Ademollo, from 1793-1794.
In 1764 the loggia passed to the Signori Uniti del Casino, who made it the seat of the Circolo degli Uniti: founded in 1657, it is still there. In those years the part facing Piazza del Campo got a new facade, designed by Ferdinando Fuga, on the spot where the church of Santi Pietro e Paolo, later destroyed, once stood.
It was the seat of the Arte della Mercanzia, the guild of merchants of the Republic of Siena, and you can see why: at the crossing of the main streets the merchants stood where the people passed. It was conceived as an enlargement and embellishment of that seat.
The finest thing is the five statues of saints, in the tabernacles of the pillars. Saint Peter and Saint Paul, on the outer pillars, are by Vecchietta (1458-1462). The other three show Saint Savinus, Saint Ansanus and Saint Victor, three of the four ancient patron saints of Siena, and are by Antonio Federighi (1458-1459).
Comparing the two sculptors is instructive: Federighi is inspired by the powerful figures of Jacopo della Quercia and by classical art, while Vecchietta, closer to Donatello, gives his figures an emotional character.
On the short sides there are two marble benches. The more interesting one is the one on the right, by Federighi, with figures from Roman history (1459-1464); the one on the left is by Urbano da Cortona (around 1462).
Look up and you see the cross vaults, with 16th-century stucco and decorative frescoes, retouched in the 19th century. The first on the left is by Pastorino dei Pastorini (1549-1552), the second and third by Lorenzo Rustici (1553-1563).
The building site dragged on. Designed by Sano di Matteo, the loggia was built between 1417 and 1428 under his direction, then until 1444 under Pietro del Minella. Almost thirty years of work, and in the meantime taste had changed: the style sits halfway between Gothic and Renaissance.
The vaults came in the 16th century and the upper floor over the Croce del Travaglio in the 17th. In the hall upstairs there is a monochrome by Luigi Ademollo, from 1793-1794.
In 1764 the loggia passed to the Signori Uniti del Casino, who made it the seat of the Circolo degli Uniti: founded in 1657, it is still there. In those years the part facing Piazza del Campo got a new facade, designed by Ferdinando Fuga, on the spot where the church of Santi Pietro e Paolo, later destroyed, once stood.