The Collegiate Church of Santa Maria in Provenzano

The Interior and its Decorations

Inside the church, the majestic high altar stands in the center of the apse. Designed by the Sienese architect Flaminio Del Turco, this richly elaborate artifact immediately captures the eye because it contains up high in a niche the terracotta bust of the Madonna of Provenzano venerated since the second half of the fifteenth century. The two figures below, Saint Bernardine and Saint Catherine, invite the faithful to collect themselves in prayer.
On the right side of the nave, the first marble altar is embellished by a painting by the Sienese artist Rutilio Manetti (1571 – 1639) showing Saint Cerbonius Saying Mass (1630). The floor beneath the dome, made of colored marble like the altar, was created in 1685 by order of Grand Duke Cosimo III (1642-1723). In the center, the Medici family’s coat of arms is flanked by the emblems of the Grand Duke and the coat of arms of the city of Siena; around these are the insignia of the dioceses in the territory of Siena. In the right transept is the altar of the Santissima Annunziata (Our Lady of the Annunciation), built in 1639. Here we find the canvas showing Saint Catherine of Alexandria and Saint Catherine of Siena Adoring the Virgin Annunciate, painted in 1612 by another Sienese artist, Francesco Rustici (1586 – 1626), known as Rustichino.
Above the altar in the left transept is a seventeenth-century wooden Crucifix between statues of the Mourners and Mary Magdalene, carved by the Sienese sculptor Antonio Manetti (1805-1887). The Saint Catherine altar on the left side of the nave holds Saint Catherine’s Vision of the Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence by Dionisio Montorselli (ca. 1653 – 1710). The walls of the church are also decorated by four nineteenth-century canvases and a series of monochrome paintings from the middle of the seventeenth century showing stories from the Old Testament and celebratory subjects such as Brandano’s Prophecy by Bernardino Mei (1616-1676).