SIENNA ITALY

The Pinacoteca Nazionale (State Picture Gallery) is situated in the Palazzo Buonsignori, an elegant building of the Siennese late-gothic style and was founded in 1700 when Abbot Giuseppe Ciaccheri gathered together a collection of paintings. Gradually, the collection was added to by private and public donations. The gallery has 38 rooms and boasts roughly 700 paintings, exhibited in chronological or stylistic order featuring Siennese masters such as Duccio di Buoninsegna, Simone Martini and Ambrogio and Pietro Lorenzetti... Access to the "facciatone" is gained from the museum's premises, and offers a breathtaking view of the whole city. The collection includes works of art from other churches in the diocese of Sienna, removed from their original settings over the centuries. Paintings, sculptures, sacred ornaments and vestments, jewelry and illuminated manuscripts offer an exhaustive insight into the city's artistic culture... Sienna (spelt Siena in Italian) is one of the four "art..