bandierepaliosienaFlags of the Palio protagonists of the celebration of the seven hundred years of Costituti Senese. Saturday, September 26th at 11am at the Santa Maria della Scala was inaugurated the exhibition “The Dream of the Middle Ages,” edited by Mauro Civai and Enrico Toti. This occasion will be presented in a superb display, twelve flags of the contrade specially restored Stibbert from the Museum of Florence. On the same occasion will also be presented the documentary “Behind the flag” by Massimo Reale.

This is an important recovery of evidence concerning both the Palio, the seventeen local community. Flags on display present interesting iconographic elements in the plan that is in fashion. The meticulous and careful restoration, directed by Mary Westerman Bulgarella, lasted more than three years and has been supported by Fondazione Monte dei Paschi.

The flags are part of the collection of Frederick Stibbert that April 20, 1884 purchased from the merchant Gaetano Basetti seventeen silk banners. Twelve were placed at the center of the ceiling of a room of the villa called “flags”. It was that of the Contrada della Civetta, Drago, the Giraffe, Istria, the Unicorn, of Lupa, the Shell, the Goose, the Wave, the Panther, the Tortoise and the Ram.

Despite the painstaking research conducted in the museum Stibbert not yet been traced those of Aquila, the Caterpillar, the Snail, the Selva and the Tower.

Some bear the date of execution such as the Panther (1826), the Giraffe (1828) and OCHA (1859), in addition to the initial or the names of the authors. For example, that bears the signature of the Giraffe “Maria Bartoli sewed.

The original flags were replaced in the hall of the museum with faithful reproductions of silk, made by a Dutch specialist firm, and now may finally be admired by visitors and Siena as a sort of anticipation of the future museum of the Palio.

Always at the Santa Maria della Scala, in the evocative atmosphere of Chiasso Sant’Ansano, continuous exposure of the Carracci historical pageant of Palio. In particular, it is possible to admire the one designed in 1928 by painter Meacci Ricciardo, a sort of triumphal chariot enriched by five panels on which the famous “painter of old paintings” Icilio Frederick Ions painted the seventeen charming Contrada through ancient allegory worthy of a miniaturist .

It ‘also exhibited a carroccio half of the nineteenth century, on which was placed among other reproduction of the banner of Monteaperti, where in addition to the Virgin bearing the inscription “SENA VETUS Civitas Virginis, Alpha et Omega, principium et Finis” . For centuries the great banner of white silk had been stored at the Santa Maria della Scala, but it was looted in the second half of the eighteenth century.

Stibbert Frederick (1838-1906), born in Florence to an English father and Italian mother, but educated in England, was a famous collector of art, weapons and armor of all ages who collected and arranged in his villa in the Florentine hills, property together with the park that surrounds it, to his death he wanted to give it to the City of Florence. Today his prestigious residence is the home of the museum dedicated to him.

Stibbert remained attached to his house in Florence, bought by his mother, Julia Cafaggi, and home of the family. In 1859 came into possession of a wealth which will always continue to deal with great commitment and great vision, taking advantage of its multiple nature of international finance, a passionate collector and frequent flyers. Indeed, for nearly fifty years, in order to implement the project of his life, the transformation of Montughi villa into a museum, he could easily control the various offers from the antique market across Europe.

The collection, about fifty thousand pieces, was collected between 1860 and the end of the century, and is made as well as paintings from various eras, from a large number of pieces of armor, swords and guns, especially the sixteenth-eighteenth from schools Italian, German and French.

More info:
URP common Siena
tel.: 0577292340 to 292,230
E-mail: urp@comune.siena.it
Monday to Friday from 9:00 to 12:30
Tuesday and Thursday from 15:00 to 16:30
www.comune.siena.it