03 — ARTWORK
Bishop's Palace
- MEDIUM
- Photo
- TYPE
- Other
PALETTE
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- FILE
- 968 × 690 px · JPEG
COMMENTARY
UNDERLINED TERMS ARE DEFINED IN THE GLOSSARY.
Although Sienese, Pope Pius II (originally Enea Silvio Piccolomini) had actually been born in a small town south of Siena called Corsignano. Beginning in 1459, he attempted to establish this town as a papal seat. In 1462 he rechristened it Pienza in honour of himself, rated it to a bishopric, and hired Bernardo Rossellino, who had previously been a capomaestro on Nicholas V's new apseA semicircular projection, roofed with a half-dome, at the east end of a church behind the altar. Smaller subsidiary apses may be found around the choir or transepts. Also known as an exedra. The adjective is apsidal. and transepts for St Peter's and had worked in an elaborated classicising style in Florence, to transform its centre into a suitably coherent setting for the town's new status.
Rosselino's plan was determined in part by pre-existing streets, by the medieval town hall at the site, and by the precipitous drop of the hill where Pius planned a new cathedralThe principal church of a province or diocese, where the throne of the bishop is placed. For reasons lost to time and tradition, a cathedral always faces west - toward the setting sun. The altar is placed at the east end. The main body, or nave, of the cathedral is usually divided into one main and two side aisles. These lead up to the north and south transepts, or arms of the cross, the shape in which a cathedral is usually formed.. To either side of the cathedral Rosselino placed the bishop's palace and Pius's own palace, forming a trapezoidal piazza. Pius's own coat-of-arms appears prominently in the gablethe end wall of a pitched roof or similar architectural form, usually triangular but sometimes stepped or arched. A gable may be used purely decoratively, as, for example, over the portal of a Gothic cathedral, where it often contains sculptural decoration. of the cathedral, whose triple-arched façadethe front or principal face of a building, especially one elaborately constructed; a blind façade is a façade that is purely decorative and does not relate to the structure of the building. recalls ancient Roman triumphal arches.
View the <a href="#" onClick="w=window.open ('/support/plans/r/rosselin/bernardo/pienza.html', 'newWin', 'scrollbars=yes,status=no,dependent=yes,screenX=0,screenY=0,width=400,height=600');w.opener=this;w.focus();return false">ground plan</a> of Piazza Pio II, Pienza.
CITE THIS RECORD — BIBTEX
@online{wga-rc81a0a7d8c96fb,
author = {Krén, Emil and Marx, Daniel},
title = {Bishop's Palace by ROSSELLINO, Bernardo},
organization = {{Web Gallery of Art}},
date = {2026-09-09},
url = {https://beta.wga.hu/artists/rossellino-bernardo-r230e3219d11d49/bishops-palace-rc81a0a7d8c96fb},
urldate = {2026-09-09},
langid = {english}
}ACCESSED 2026-09-09. REPLACE THE AUTHOR FIELD WITH THE COMMENTARY AUTHOR WHERE ONE IS NAMED.
