Baptistery San Giovanni Battista - Siena - Tuscany

The Battistero di San Giovanni (Italian: "Baptistery of Saint John") is a religious building in Siena, Italy. It is located on the square of the same name, near the last spans of the choir of the city's cathedral.

It was built between 1316 and 1325 by Camaino di Crescentino, the father of Tino di Camaino. The facade, in Gothic style, is unfinished in the upper part, like the apse of the cathedral.

In the interior, in the rectangular hall, divided by two columns into a nave and two aisles, there is a hexagonal baptismal font in bronze, marble and glass enamel, realized in 1417-1431 by the most important sculptors of the time: Donatello (panel from "The Banquet of Herod" and statues of the "Faith" and the "Hope"), Lorenzo Ghiberti, Giovanni di Turino, Goro di Neroccio and Jacopo della Quercia (statue of John the Baptist and other figures). The panels depict the Life of John the Baptist, and include:

"Annunciation to Zacharias" by Jacopo della Quercia (1428-1429)
"Birth of John the Baptist" by Giovanni di Turino (1427)
"Preaching of the Baptist" by Giovanni di Turino (1427)
"Baptism of Christ" by Ghiberti (1427)
"Arrest of John the Baptist" by Ghiberti and Giuliano di Ser Andrea
"Herod's Feast by Donatello (1427)
These panels are flanked at the corners by six figures, two by Donatello ("Faith" and "Hope") from 1429; three by Giovanni di Turino ("Justice", "Charity" and "Providence", 1431); and the "Constancy" is from Goro di Ser Neroccio (1431).[1]

The marble shrine on the baptismal font was designed by Jacopo della Quercia between 1427 and 1429. The five "Prophets" in the niches and the marble statue of "John the Baptist" on the top are also by him. Two of the bronze angels are by Donatello, three by Giovanni di Turino (the sixth is by an unknown artist).

The frescoes are by Vecchietta and his school (1447-1450, Articles of the Faith, Prophets and Sibyls), Benvenuto di Giovanni, the school of Jacopo della Quercia and, perhaps, one of Piero Orioli. Vecchietta also painted two scenes on the wall of the apse, depicting the flagellation and the road to Calvary. Michele di Matteo da Bologna painted the frescoes on the vault of the apse in 1477.

Siena's Baptistery of San Giovanni is a remarkable building. It was built more or less under the cathedral of the city. In 1317, the Opera del Duomo – that is, the institution charged with the management of the cathedral – had plans to extend the Duomo's choir. That was not easy, however. The end of the choir was already on the edge of a steep hill. The only way to add two more bays was therefore to erect a new building whose roof could support the extended choir. This building would become the Baptistery.

Willem Vandenameele