A few tips on what you need to know about Siena to understand how an
art centre can be so perfectly preserved and at the same time
continuously modernised and updated.

Visiting Siena, you will soon catch on to a few things. The first is
fundamental - the Palio horserace has nothing to do with you. If anyone
is kind enough to explain the rules of the Palio to you, they will seem
absurd, senseless and even immoral since they involve drawing horses by
lot, bargaining over jockeys, blessings that have a pagan touch to them,
as well as, ceremonies, sham and corruption. Jockeys are allowed to "buy"
alliances - and pay on the nail - to ensure their victory or the defeat
of the contrada's enemies (contrada = district). Anything
goes at the crucial moment (in which television plays an increasingly
large role) when victory is sweet, of course, but the defeat of one's
enemies is even sweeter. Yet this is the "city-state" par excellence,
ruled by unparalleled ethical and aesthetic principles. Do not try to
understand what will seem to you to be giaring contradictions, but are
not, in actual fact. The first law of survival here is this - try not to
disturb the Sienese when they are engrossed in the business of the Palio. In those days
visitors are not welcome - and their curiosity is even less so.

Consequently, the second thing you will understand is that on
all other days, except for the Palio period, Siena is uniquely
hospitable. It will absorb you and almost suck you into a reception
system for which the best term is "harmonious". Architecture, sculpture,
painting, music, handicrafts, gastronomy - they are all connected to
each other and to Siena, to the concept and even the ideology of
"being Sienese". Everything can be explained because everything is done
(or simply happens) in accordance with the rules and customs governing
the common good, so that there is always an evident correlation between
usefulness and aesthetics: "We decree and order that the windows of all
the houses or buildings built around the market square must have little
columns and no balconies....".
This is a loose translation of the marvellous vernacular of the famous
decree dated May 10, 1297, that made Piazza del Campo's inexplicable
perfection possible. This crucial decree is in line with the traditional
concept of "good government" that was such an essential rule of
community life that a great fourteenth-century Sienese painter, Ambrogio
Lorenzetti, was commissioned by the authorities to portray it in a
gigantic fresco in Palazzo Pubblico.
The third element that will make you fall under Siena's spell once and
for all is its "timeless historical dimension". As you explore the old
town centre on foot and admire the harmonious hues of an elaborate
but never intricate Gothic style in some cases a patina still survives
the brightness of painstaking restoration work - you will be convinced
that this city once believed it could attain artistic perfection and
since then has undertaken a continuous process of refinement using all
the means provided by innovation. The use of the term "historical"
refers to Siena's golden age, less than two centuries from the end
of the 13th to the middle of the 15th century, when its merchants and
bourgeoisie indulged in luxury, pleasure and a display of riches. However,
concern for the common good came first and they all contributed, on the
basis of their wealth and social standing, to the building of a
marvellous common "urban landscape". A major architect, Ludovico
Quadroni, has drawn attention to the fact that in fourteenth-century
Siena - and from then on with admirable continuity to the present day -
"material culture" and "intellectual culture" knew no boundaries and
therefore no interruptions. There was no distinguishing between
craftsmen and artists, and Siena is the proof - says Quaroni - that
"several degrees of craftsmanship" are absolutely necessary to any
architectural undertaking. In Siena a high degree of social wisdom
induced the lower classes, merchants and aristocracy to come together
whenever it was necessary to complete projects for the "beauty" of the
city as a necessary condition for increasing its prestige and capacity
to resist its enemies (Florence above all).

In this connection, it is marvellous to discover how the secular
spirit, of the more enlightened culture of the commune, and the religious
spirit, excellently represented in Siena's history and social life,
converge in the plan conceived by the medieval art centre. The series
of "references" between Palazzo Pubblico and the Duomo, the way the two
centres of city life never cease to communicate and develop together,
is a fundamental and edifying aspect of life in Siena and influenced
the character and identity of the inhabitants of the Republic in the
times of the communes, so much so, that the famous contrast between
Papacy and Empire and the consequent bitter conflicts between Guelphs
and Ghibellines were tempered by political skill and realism. The
Sienese were Ghibellines when they wanted to prevent the Church from
suffocating the thriving experience of the commune, but they were
reconciled to becoming Guelphs when they realised that papal
excommunications and interdicts reduced the market, as we would say
today, for the profitable financial activities on which their
flourishing economy was founded. They were never really Ghibellines
nor Guelphs, but first and foremost incurably Sienese.

Why is Siena a "timeless historical dimension"? Because it has
handled the inevitable decadence after a long and glorious period of
splendour with skill, moderation and wisdom. It has protected the
inviolability of the aesthetic model of the perfect Gothic city, from
the most insidious periods when the drive towards the destruction of
its legacy from the past was rampant (even the Renaissance was not
immune) up to the industrial contamination and demolitions of our
times.
Not only has Siena never abandoned its layout as an art centre that
combines values such as beauty, dignity and usefulness, it has also
continued to perfect them so rigorously and with such self-discipline
that today it is one of the most precious and intact Gothic "gems". In
terms of cultural tourism of the very highest level, this jewel can be
enjoyed and enhanced by the computer technology that makes Siena a very
special and possibly unique example of an entirely "cabled" art
centre. A stroll through the city - where they have invented urban
trekking, lucky them! - is sufficient to prove it.

extracted from Ulisse - Alitalia magazine - January 2003
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