# Interior view [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [ARCHITECT, Italian]() - Date: 1301-1350 - Technique: Photo ## Commentary The variety of civil building and rebuilding in early-fourteenth-century Siena was matched by the multiplicity of churches that were being started or enlarged. Among the latter, San Domenico and San Francesco rank as two of the most important brick constructions in Central Italy. Both were replacements for more modest buildings, and both flow directly from the thirteenth-century Tuscan mendicant tradition. The new San Francesco \(Basilica of St. Francis\) was founded in 1326. It was planned as an Egyptian cross, also known as the T-cross, characterized by a transept that crosses the church at the apse. This particular shape evokes the Tau St. Francis chose as a symbol of Jesus's cross and that has now become the identifying mark of the Order. Although the church is longer and wider than San Domenico, it is also lower and lighter. The nave, which was heightened by Francesco di Giorgio Martini in 1475-84, was always higher than the transepts. As a result there is an easier hierarchy in the external forms. The interior is formed by a large single hall, typical of the churches of the mendicant orders: the spaciousness of this structure allowed to host a large number of followers and had a key acoustic function essential to preaching. The absence of side aisles immediately attracts the attention of those who enter towards the altar, the heart of the whole building. The need of the Order to pursue poverty and spirituality is confirmed in the architecture, void of any decoration, yet still able to express the glory of God. In both arms of the transept there are a few chapels, once under the patronage of the most important families in Siena who commissioned the decoration. From the walls of the church, painted in black and white, Siena's traditional colours, hang the flags of the city's Contradas. The photo shows the view of the nave towards the entrance. ## Related artworks - [Aerial view]() - [Aerial view]() - [Apse of a basilica]() - [Arsenale Gateway]() - [Arsenale Gateway]() - [Basilica di Sant'Antonio: Chiostro del Noviziato]() - [Basilica Santi Nereo e Achilleo]() - [Ca' Foscari: Façade]() - [Chamber of the millers]() - [Chiesa dell'Incoronata: Interior of the dome]() - [Cloister gallery]() - [Detail of the façade]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()