The Collegiate Church of Santa Maria in Provenzano

The Collegiate Church

The church of Santa Maria in Provenzano was built to hold the miraculous image of Our Lady to which the people of Siena were deeply attached. The Medici family felt it was a good idea to encourage the spread of this devotion as a way of consolidating the power of the Grand Dukes in the city and to overshadow that of Our Lady of Votive Offerings, the emblem of the defeat of the Florentines at Montaperti. Because of the dispositions laid down by the Counter-Reformation, a move made by the Catholic Church in response to the accusations of Martin Luther and the unceasing spread of Protestantism, the clergy of the city tried to stifle this devotion. On 2 July 1594 the Sienese people made these miracles public, but the church was only built beginning in 1595, after approval by the Congregation of Rites, a part of the Roman Curia. The plans for the church were supposed to be an example of modern architecture and to take into account the new norms issued by the Council of Trent for evangelization. For this reason, among the various proposals put forth, Grand Duke Ferdinand I chose the model by the Carthusian monk Damiano Schifardini, while execution of the work was entrusted to the Sienese artist Flaminio del Turco. The sober, rational architectural structure, characterized by a few elements in relief, underlines the force of what it contains. The travertine façade is distinguished by a strong vertical thrust which is accentuated by the broken roofline and interrupted by the long horizontal cornice inserted at intervals amid the decorative motifs. The only entrance to the church is through the central door, above which is an arch as though to point out the way for the faithful. On either side are four niches, which since the nineteenth century hold statues of Saint Catherine and Saint Bernardine (in the lower niches) and Saint Ansanus and Saint Victor (in the upper ones). The interior is in the shape of a shortened Latin cross, so that the sacrifice of the cross may be perpetuated, while in keeping with the spirit of the Counter-Reformation the single nave facilitated preaching, helped by the position of the pulpit and the prominence given to the high altar, the center of the entire church and the place where the sacred image was placed. On 23 October 1611, when the work was finished, the image was moved into the new shrine, which was embellished and enriched by constant gifts of lavish furnishings. Pope Urban VIII in 1634 established the College of Canons and assigned the church the title of Collegiate Church, making it the second most important church in Siena. The final finishing touches were the creation of the square in front of it and of Via Lucherini, named after the rector of the Opera di Provenzano, Alcibiade Lucherini. This street, flanked by blind arches, was intended to accentuate the perspective view of the church, isolated from the urban context around it, and focus the observer’s eye on the façade, as though to create a theatrical backdrop to the entire space of the square.