Architettura e committenza a Siena nel Cinquecento: l’attività di Baldassarre Peruzzi e la storia di palazzo Francesconi

The multifaceted relationship between new and ancient, continuity and change, individual taste and collective interest is a fundamental question for understanding the built environment. And in particular, how the ideological position of the governors and of the elite modifies the aspect of a city? If, as in this case, the city is Siena, with its magnificent civic medieval tradition, in addition to the fact that an exhaustive picture of Renaissance Siena many aspects is still lacking, the search of the traces of this mutation can be complex. The subject is developed investigating in particular Baldassarre Peruzzi’s architectural activity in the city. The book, published by the Accademia Senese degli Intronati, still existing and founded in those same years with which the book is dealing with (around 1525), tries thus to illuminate a convulsive period of Siena’s political-architectonic history: the stormy and troubled period of early 16th century going from the ascent of Pandolfo the Magnificent to the fall of the Sienese Republic. Based on extensive archival research in the Archivio di Stato, direct surveys and on site confrontations, the research investigates some of the palaces attributed to Peruzzi in Siena: Francesconi, Vescovi, Ghianderoni, trying to erase the “alone of mystery” that surrounds the relationship between Baldassarre Peruzzi and the city. In particular, the book focuses on palazzo Francesconi (later Mocenni and today Coli Bizzarrini), almost unknown to the same Sienese inhabitants and never specifically studied

Palazzo o villa suburbana? Il progetto di Baldassarre Peruzzi per l'arcivescovo Ghianderoni

Come ha ricordato recentemente Mario Ascheri, l’orientamento storiografico nettamente sfavorevole al periodo rinascimentale per Siena, prevalente ancora fino agli anni Ottanta del secolo scorso, è stato superato e invertito1,mamolto resta da fare, in particolare riguardo all’attività del maestro senese Baldassarre Peruzzi (1481-1536). Tra imolti suoi disegni giunti fino a noi ne rimangono ancora diversi non identificati o analizzati. Tra questi non ha finora destato l’attenzione degli studiosi l’interessante foglio U596Ar con il «palazzo per l’arcivescovo di Amalfi», per il quale mancano committenza, localizzazione e datazione, e ciò nonostante la magnificenza e la dimensione del progetto, in cui attorno a un ampio cortile porticato si organizza una casa all’antica con criptoportico

L’architettura di palazzo Francesconi. Peruzzi tra Roma e Siena

On the basis of new documents and a detailed analysis of its fabric, the article examines the architecture of the Palazzo Francesconi at Siena, one of the many buildings traditionally attributed to Baldassarre Peruzzi in his hometown, but never yet subjected to any detailed study. After a summary discussion of the chronology of the building, closely linked to the fortunes of its patron, and after firmly establishing that the work began in 1520, the author examines its architecture in detail. She points out the close links with architectural research in Rome, and especially in the circle of Leo X, in the second decade of the sixteenth century, but also the differences and similarities with the contemporary context in Siena itself, from the viewpoint of plan, use of materials, design of the main façade and type of arcaded courtyard. In the second part of her article the author presents some hypotheses on the configuration of the initial project, which was only partially put into practice, and reviews the successive changes in programme. The regular plan and the façade with superimposed orders – a case unique of its kind in Siena in the first half of the sixteenth century –, the patron Bernardino Francesconi’s network of political and family contacts, the dating, personal relations with the Sienese artistic environment, and the traces identified in other projects of the architect and in some of his drawings, permit the author to argue convincingly for the project’s attribution to Peruzzi. A less schematic division of the chronology of Peruzzi’s activity as an architect, traditionally separated into an ante 1527 in Rome and a post 1527 in Siena, results from this. The article thus suggests a greater mobility of Baldassarre and lends force to the idea that he continued to have relations with Siena throughout his career, as would also be confirmed by other episodes recalled in the article

La pietra d’Istria in un cantiere veneziano del primo Seicento

Questa relazione è frutto del lavoro svolto sui documenti di fabbrica che ho rinvenuto di un grande cantiere del primo Seicento, insieme al lavoro diretto di rilievo e analisi dell'edificio nella sua consistenza materiale, con l'obiettivo di ricostruire quali fossero le tecniche costruttive adottate, i materiali impiegati e l'organizzazione del cantiere. Focalizzerò qui l'attenzione sull'impiego della pietra d'Istria, tema del convegno, per esemplificarne l'importanza e la diffusione capillare nell'architettura veneziana, come anche il peso economico nella pratica edificatoria tradizionale