L’architettura di palazzo Francesconi. Peruzzi tra Roma e Siena

On the basis of new documents and a detailed analysis of its fabric, the article examines the architecture of the Palazzo Francesconi at Siena, one of the many buildings traditionally attributed to Baldassarre Peruzzi in his hometown, but never yet subjected to any detailed study. After a summary discussion of the chronology of the building, closely linked to the fortunes of its patron, and after firmly establishing that the work began in 1520, the author examines its architecture in detail. She points out the close links with architectural research in Rome, and especially in the circle of Leo X, in the second decade of the sixteenth century, but also the differences and similarities with the contemporary context in Siena itself, from the viewpoint of plan, use of materials, design of the main façade and type of arcaded courtyard. In the second part of her article the author presents some hypotheses on the configuration of the initial project, which was only partially put into practice, and reviews the successive changes in programme. The regular plan and the façade with superimposed orders – a case unique of its kind in Siena in the first half of the sixteenth century –, the patron Bernardino Francesconi’s network of political and family contacts, the dating, personal relations with the Sienese artistic environment, and the traces identified in other projects of the architect and in some of his drawings, permit the author to argue convincingly for the project’s attribution to Peruzzi. A less schematic division of the chronology of Peruzzi’s activity as an architect, traditionally separated into an ante 1527 in Rome and a post 1527 in Siena, results from this. The article thus suggests a greater mobility of Baldassarre and lends force to the idea that he continued to have relations with Siena throughout his career, as would also be confirmed by other episodes recalled in the article.