SIENA, Italy -- No horse race is more sacred in Italy than the Palio, which traces its lineage back 700 years. This year, however, the hotly contested chase has taken an unexpectedly ecumenical -- and disputed -- twist. For the first time, a Muslim painter was asked to design the Palio, or banner, that the winner takes home at the end of the race,...
SIENA, ITALY -- Jacopo della Quercia was unique among Siena's artists of his time in achieving fame throughout Italy and beyond. And, as a 19th-century French art historian observed: ''Jacopo had only one pupil, and for him there was a century to wait: he was Michelangelo.'' The sculptor was born here in around 1374 and died in his native city in...
SIENA, ITALY -- ''Never was there music so well harmonized to the ear as his painting was to the eye,'' wrote the 18th-century art historian Luigi Lanzi of Federico Barocci. Born in Urbino in 1535, Barocci spent almost all his life there. Yet his works had a marked effect on a diverse range of painters: Annibale and Lodovico Carracci, Guido Reni...
Siena er en by i det sydlige Toscana i det centrale Italien. Byen havde pr. 31. december 2004 54.498 indbyggere. Byen er hovedstad for provinsen Siena.
Det historiske centrum er med på UNESCOs verdensarvsliste.
To gange hver sommer afholdes på der en traditionsrig palio (et hestevæddeløb) på den centrale plads, Piazza del Campo.
Arkitekten til Københavns Rådhus (Martin Nyrop) fandt inspiration i Siena.
Efter forbillede af Rom dannede flere italienske byer republikanske bystater. Først ude var Amalfi ca år 1000, senere Venedig og Pisa. Mest romersk blev alligevel Siena fra 1100- til 1300-tallet, hvor byen lod ni familier vælge en legat. Vi ser derfor ni felter i gulvbelægget på Piazza del Campo, der peger ind mod rådhusets indgang. Disse ni delegater valgte så en leder for fællesskabet. Senere kom så Medici-familien og omgjorde republikken til et dynastisk monarki. Fold ud