1 Prime pagine ok.indd - accademia degli intronati

Mary, sovereign of Siena, Jesus, king of Florence 61
Florence was inevitable. Thus, the oath of fealty and consigning of the
keys were parallel acts of submission – and, the two halves of a plan to
turn the powers of heaven and earth against the Florentines.
The donazione was modeled on a political act; and a notary made
a record of it, the “solemn contract,” which was also a feature of the
city’s four subsequent submissions. According to one source, at this
moment Siena became “the city of the Virgin,” and after the victory,
coins were minted with this motto, “civitas Virginis.” Yet, as I stressed
in the Introduction, this upgrading of the relationship between the city
and its heavenly protector, which was conducted with great solemnity
in the cathedral’s sacred space before the high altar, with the bishop,
clergy, and Virgin, too, by means of the tavola in attendance, was also a
religious act.
The tavola, despite its unique importance, was soon to lose its place
of honor. Ventura relates that “in that time [sometime after Montaperti]”
the Sienese put a new tavola of Our Lady on the cathedral’s high altar.
This replacement Madonna held the Christ Child in her arms, and, “in
commemoration of the offering to her of the city and contado of Siena
as recorded in the contract,” the Child was shown holding this contract.
This last intriguing bit of information, which agrees with the city’s
particular concern that a documentary witness to this event should be
redacted on the spot, cannot be verified. In any case, the venerable
Montaperti tavola gave way to a Madonna and Child, known as the
Madonna del Voto; and before long (in 1311) its place was taken by
Duccio’s sumptuous altarpiece, which today is on public display in the
Museo dell’Opera.
These changes do not signify that the Sienese had lost the meaning
of Montaperti. The fact is, a crisis icon is not an altarpiece (nor, without
losing its aura, can it remain continuously on public display); and, having
been removed from the high altar, Siena’s was given its own cathedral
chapel, where it could be accessed as necessary by the state and its
citizens. The construction of this chapel dates back to a statute of 1262
(“this special chapel in the cathedral dedicated to the victorious Virgin of