Artworks by 4 great artists not to be missed in Valdichiana Senese

Art: the works not to be missed

SARTEANO
The Annunciation by Domenico Beccafumi
Domenico Beccafumi (1486 – 1551), Italian painter and sculptor, is one of the most important founders of “Mannerism” and an artist of great influence of the Sienese school, together with Giovanni Antonio Bazzi (named “Sodoma”). Inside the deconsecrated church of Saint Martin, built in 1844, and today “Domenico Beccafumi” Art Room, you can admire the greatest masterpiece of the homonymous artist: the Annunciation (1545-‘46). The room also houses two works by Jacopo di Mino del Pellicciaio, two tables by Girolamo del Pacchia (from Saint Lawrence) dating back to 1514 approximately, a terracotta Madonna with the Child by a Sienese artist from the beginning of the fifteenth century, and a small wooden crucifix for private devotion referred to Antonio da Sangallo. Among the later works, there is a beautiful canvas in Mannerist style by the Florentine Niccolò Betti, the large altarpieces with the Visitation by Matteo Rosselli (first half of the 17th century) and the Madonna in glory with the Child and the Saints by Vincenzo Rustici (beginning of the seventeenth century).

MONTEPULCIANO
A Portrait of a Gentleman, attributed to Caravaggio
A Caravaggio at the Civic Museum – “Crociani” Picture Gallery in Montepulciano? Definitely yes. The Portrait of a Gentleman, once considered a work by an unknown Roman painter, could instead bear the autograph of the great Lombard artist. The canvas is not large, but well made. On the dark background, the chest of a young man, a little more than thirty years old, strong, with a full face, with a goatee, and whose mustache turn up, blossoms slightly. He looks sideways, dressed in dark, wearing the embroidered collar of the gentlemen. If you look at it carefully, you will note the actual similarities with Scipione Caffarelli Borghese, nephew of Paul V and portrayed here before his appointment as cardinal. The gentleman of Montepulciano, or Scipione, has that expression, ironic and gentle at the same time, that characterized him, and he emerges with that diagonal cut of the light typical of the Master. The art gallery also displays works by Della Robbia, Signorelli, Sodoma, Carracci and Sano di Pietro.

CETONA
The paintings by the artist Lionello Balestrieri, native of Cetona
More than just a single work of art, it is a real collection on the first floor of the Town Hall of Cetona in via Roma, 41. The paintings on display were made by the artist Lionello Balestrieri, born in Cetona on September 12, 1872, who in 1900 the gold medal at the Paris Universal Exposition. Balestrieri, from an early age, enthusiastically welcomed the task of “studying in life the passions, the poetry of love”. Among the works exhibited in Cetona, we can mention a Self-portrait (1910 – 1914), The Death of Lovers Chained in the Sea Abyss (1916 – 1920), and Cesare Battisti Led to Hanging (1920).

SINALUNGA
The works of sacred art by Sodoma
In Sinalunga you can admire some works by the famous painter Giovanni Antonio Bazzi, or de’ Bazzi, known as Sodoma (1477 – 1549). The artistic figure of Sodom is a sort of bridge between late Renaissance and Mannerism; in Siena in particular, his importance was remarkable in expressing the general lines to the subsequent Sienese Mannerism. Inside the Collegiate Church of Saint Martin in Piazza Garibaldi in Sinalunga, you can admire a Madonna with Child and the Saints by Sodoma; while at the small chapel of San Michele, in the locality of La Fratta, on the presbytery wall, there are 3 frescoes made by the artist around 1530.