Back to Contents... the Student Sourcebook 2004
International School of Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture in Umbria, Italy

TRIP GUIDE

SAN GIMIGNANO

The city of the beautiful towers is medieval in its aspect but also very touristy. There are about 14 towers remaining of the original 70 in this beautiful little village. Cumulative ticket for all museums, € 12,00.

Duomo (Santa Maria Assunta) - 9.30-19.30. 1148. Frescoes of the Sienese school: right wall: New Testament scenes (Lippo di Memmi); left wall: New Testament scenes ( Bartolo di Fredi); entrance: an amazing Last Judgement (Taddeo di Bartolo), and San Sebastiano ( Benozzo Gozzoli). On the right aisle, the Capella di Santa Fina with frescoes by Ghirlandaio, and sculpture by Jacopo della Quercia and Giuliano e Benedetto da Maiano. € 3,00

Palazzo Comunale - Piazza del Duomo. 9.30–19.20. Maestà by Lippo Memmi ( Simone Martini's brother-in-law). Upstairs, frescoes of courtship and love by Memmo di Filippuccio.

Museo Civico and Pinacoteca - Piazza del Duomo, 9.30–19.20. Crucifix by Coppo di Marcovaldo, Filippino Lippi, Pinturicchio, Gozzoli, Sodoma. € 4,00

Torre Grossa, 1311 is 54 meters high. (€ 4,00 combined ticket with Museo)

Museo Etrusco and Museo d'Arte Sacra - Piazza Pecori. 9.30-17. Bartolo di Fredi, Ghirlandaio, funerary urns. € 2,50

Sant'Agostino - Piazza S' Agostino. Main altar, Coronation of the Virgin with Saints by Pollaiolo; Gozzoli frescoes of the life of S. Agostino; Bartolo di Fredi, Lippo Memmi, Fra Bartolomeo, Andrea della Robbia.

Back to Contents... the Student Sourcebook 2003
International School of Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture in Umbria, Italy

VOLTERRA

Volterra, a settlement since the Neothithic Age, is a small fortress town in the southeast part of the province of Pisa. It sits on a sandstone ridge 541 meters above sea level dominating a vast, unspoiled countryside and scenic landscape of gently rolling hills. Deposits of rock salt, limestone, sandstone and alabaster contribute to the varied features of the landscape. In the 4C BC the Etruscans built the great defensive wall, more than seven kilometers long, to enclose the city. In the 12C there were violent conflicts between the nobility and the bishop's rule. The feudal lords and the middle classes united against the bishops and the Palazzo dei Priori was begun in 1208 and completed in 1257, as a symbol of the free commune. Volterra was sacked by the Duke of Montefeltro following Lorenzo dei Medici and became subject to Florence in 1472.

Museo Etrusco Guarnacci - Via Don Minzoni 15. 9-19. Tel. 0588 86347. Founded in 1761 when the noble abbot Mario Guarnacci donated his archeological collection to the citizens of the city. Over 600 cinerary urns displayed according to theme.

• Ground floor: early Iron Age 9-8C BC, funeral stele of Avile Tite, (6C B.C.) portrays a warrior with a lance and sword similar in style to Greek-Oriental works of art.
• Room III: 5C BC: Attic Krater attributed to the Berlin Painter, Etruscan sculpture, the Lorenzini Head.
• First floor: Room XXII: elongated, votive figure of a young boy known as Ombra della sera ( Shadow of the Evening, 3C); also Roman mosaics from local buildings of Imperial Rome.
• Second floor: reconstruction of tombs of the Hellenistic Period (4-1C BC). The main feature of the collection is the cinerary urn typical of Volterra. The rite of cremation was almost exclusive to this area. The ashes were ceremoniously placed in the urn, similar to a small sarcophagus. The lid represents a recumbent figure attending a luxurious banquet feast, a social occasion also assisted by the Etruscan women, and held in disrepute by the Romans and Greeks. Alabaster, a local stone, was exclusively utilized for the production of the cinerary urns.

Pinacoteca e Museo Civico - Palazzo Minucci-Solaini, Via dei Sarti, 1. 9-19. Tel. 0588 87580. The Palazzo is attributed to Antonio Sangallo the Elder (15C). A small head in Carrara marble from the Fontana Maggiore in Perugia, attributed to Giovanni Pisano (13C), polyptych by Taddeo di Bartolo (1411) of Madonna and child with saints; Room IX - wood panel of Christ in Glory by Ghirlandaio; Room X - two wood panels by Luca Signorelli, Madonna and child with saints and an Annunciation; wood panel of the Deposition by Rosso Fiorentino (1521); top floor - panoramic view of the Roman Theater and the surrounding landscape.

Museo dell’Opera del Duomo - Palazzo Vescovile, Via Roma 1. 9-13, 15-18. Tel. 0588 86290. Works of art from the cathedral and the churches of the diocese. Reliefs by Tino da Camaino, Roman sarcophagus, Rosso Tuesday, April 10, 2007 10:06 PM/duomo.html">Duomo - Piazza S. Giovanni, Piazza dei Priori. Reconstructed in 1120 on the site of a preexisting church. Romanesque facade with geometric marble intarsia added in the 13C, attributed by Vasari to Nicola Pisano. The interior was completely modified from 1580-1584.

• The Chapel of San Carlo - side walls, Saint Mary Magdelan of Scolaro by Guido Reni.
• Chapel of the Deposition - Group of five wooden polychrome figures representing the Deposition (1228) by an unknown Volterran artist.
• Funeral Monument of Mario Maffei - by Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli, one of Michelangelo's assistants.
• The Oratory of the Virgin Mary - Two niches, with a background fresco of the Journey of the Magi by Benozzo Gozzoli on the left and the Epiphany on the right. Terracotta painted figures attributed to Giovanni della Robbia.

San Francesco - Piazza S. Francesco. The Chapel of the Holy Cross. Frescoes by Cenni di Francesco in 1410 of the legend of the True Cross.

Porta all'Arco - 5C BC, and conserved in the medieval wall.

Hostels:

Selected sources

Back to Contents... the Student Sourcebook 2004
International School of Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture in Umbria, Italy

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Updated: April 10, 2007 10:06 PM