Pienza

Pienza: October 12

            Pier Giaccomo described Pienza as the “perfect Renaissance town.”  We visited this quaint Tuscan town shortly after studying the Piccolomini family in Art History.  The Piccolomini family lived in Siena during the end of the medieval period and the start of the Renaissance.  Their Palazzo is located on Banchi di Sotto, one of the two main branches of the ancient Francigena Road.  This Palazzo has classical style arches and columns and square windows, some of the main aspects of Renaissance architecture.  In 1458, Enea Silvio Piccolomini became Pope Pius II.  This background is important to understand the town of Pienza. 

Pienza, formerly known as Corsignano, was the birthplace of Pope Pius II, and in the 1450s, he decided to rename the town after himself and transform it into the ideal Renaissance town.  Renaissance architecture was characterized by a reflection of antiquity.  Renaissance buildings used classical Roman components including arches and columns.  Pope Pius II commissioned the Florentine architect Bernardo Rossellino to build the church in the middle of the main piazza in Pienza.  One of the most noteworthy aspects of this church is its façade.  The façade is not very decorated and what little decorations it does have are not religious.  The architecture is made up of a series of three large arches across the façade and various smaller decorative arches over the doorways.  There is one loan cross on top, but the main decorations of the church include various crests.  Pope Pius II was not particularly interested in religion.  In fact, he considered himself a humanist.  He held the position of Pope because it was very important politically.  He built the church in Pienza as a form of political propaganda.  When people visited Pienza and gazed at the façade of the church, they would be reminded not of religion but of the powerful Pope Pius II. 

The main piazza is also noteworthy in its own right.  The layout piazza echoes antiquity because it resembles an ancient Roman stage.  In Renaissance tradition, one important building generally dominated the piazza, with streets on either side of it, separating it from the buildings facing it on the left and right.  This main building was considered kind of a Roman stage.  In Pienza, the church is the dominating building.  There are roads on either side of the church, and the surrounding buildings seem to be facing the church.  In front of the church, there is a stage of red and white stone, and in the center of the stage, there is a circle.  This circle symbolizes man as the center of the universe, a critical part of Renaissance philosophy. 

Classical thought and styles not only influenced, but defined Renaissance architecture.  The Renaissance was considered a rebirth of ancient Rome, and the buildings were designed based on ancient Roman structures such as the Parthenon and ancient Roman Basilicas.