The Basilica of the Servants of Mary

Paintings in the Right Transept

The chapel on the right, looking towards the high altar, since 1888 bears the title of the Immaculate Conception, represented on the panel painted that same year by Alessandro Franchi. The subject became a very frequent one in sacred art after the proclamation by Pope Pius IX in 1854 of the dogma attesting that Mary was free of original sin from the moment she was conceived. The Virgin, crowned with twelve stars, is framed by a mandorla of rays; this shape refers to Mary’s virginity. Her feet rest on a crescent moon, a detail that derives from the vision of the Woman, identified as the new Eve, described by Saint John in Revelations. Moreover, the Virgin steps on the serpent on top of the globe of the world, symbolizing the victory over original sin. This iconography comes from a passage in Genesis (3:15) and means that Mary is the Mother of Him who, by sacrificing Himself, would defeat Satan, freeing mankind from enslavement to evil. At Mary’s sides are Saint Michael the Archangel holding the scales, and Saint Clement the Pope, who were the titular saints of the two parishes in Siena encompassed by the church of the Servites.

The next chapel moving to the right has a complex history; over the centuries its name has changed several times, according to the works that were placed there. The Petroni family, its first patrons, commissioned the fourteenth-century frescoes, of which today the Slaughter of the Innocents is still visible, and placed over the altar the Belverde Madonna by Jacopo di Mino del Pellicciaio, now in the second chapel to the left. In 1602 the chapel was dedicated to Saint Lawrence, then in the nineteenth century the Madonna of the People by Lippo Memmi was moved into it (now in the Pinacoteca Nazionale). This work, datable in the 1330s, shows the Virgin and the Child who holds in his right hand a scroll inscribed “I am the way, the truth” and in his left a goldfinch, symbol of the Passion. According to legend, when the bird flew to Jesus on the cross to take one of the thorns from his crown, its head was splashed with blood, staining it red forever. The panel, part of a larger polyptych commissioned by the friars with a contribution from the commune of Siena, was placed on the high altar in 1317, remaining there until the sixteenth century, when it was moved into the chapel at the end of the right transept. This chapel, after being under the patronage of various families, today holds the wooden cross that used to be over the high altar, painted by Ugolino di Nerio in the 1330s. At the feet of the dying Christ is a praying Servite friar, who may be Blessed Francesco Patrizi (1266-1328), since his remains are inside the altar. Blessed Francesco, along with his contemporary Blessed Gioacchino Piccolomini, is one of the most meaningful figures of the Servite Order in Siena and bears witness with his life, devoted first to taking care of his earthly mother and then totally dedicated to prayer and preaching, the concreteness of faith lived in a filial relationship with the Virgin Mary.