Sant’Agostino: An Augustinian Church in San Gimignano
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Italy
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Republic of Florence
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page16 sections
History
Sant’Agostino is a Roman Catholic church in San Gimignano, Italy, built by the Order of Saint Augustine between 1280 and 1298 in a combination of Romanesque and Gothic traditions. Dedicated to Augustine of Hippo, the late Roman Christian bishop and theologian whose writings shaped Western Christianity, it is the second-largest church in San Gimignano after the Collegiata. The church belongs to the Archdiocese of Siena–Colle di Val d’Elsa–Montalcino.
Foundation and Augustinian use
Construction began in 1280, and the church was probably complete by 1298, when it was consecrated. An Augustinian convent and a fifteenth-century cloister were established beside it. The Order of Saint Augustine is a Catholic religious order that follows the Augustinian rule and tradition, and its presence shaped the church’s religious identity and artistic commissions.
The convent premises later housed an ornithological collection donated to the municipality in 1918 by Marchioness Marianna Panciatichi Ximenes d’Aragona Paulucci. The collection remained there until 1983, after which it was exhibited in the Church of Quercecchio.
Fourteenth- and fifteenth-century commissions
Sant’Agostino preserves an extensive sequence of paintings and sculpture produced between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. Among the artists represented are Bartolo di Fredi, Benozzo Gozzoli, Sebastiano Mainardi, Vincenzo Tamagni, Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio, and Piero del Pollaiuolo. Their works reflect the church’s continuing use as a place of worship and commemoration over several centuries.
After the plague of 1464, the Augustinians commissioned Benozzo Gozzoli’s votive fresco of Saint Sebastian. The painted inscription on the floor dates its completion to 28 July 1464. In 1728, the third altar on the right side of the nave was remodelled in the Baroque style. It now venerates Saint Nicholas of Tolentino and replaced an earlier arrangement centered on a wooden Saint Anthony by the Sienese sculptor Francesco di Valdambrino.
The chapel of San Bartolo contains the remains of Bartolo, a lay Franciscan associated with San Gimignano who died of leprosy in 1300. Its marble altar was made by Benedetto da Maiano. Other works entered the church through its connection with religious institutions in the town. A panel at the first right-hand altar came from the former Dominican convent of San Domenico, and the Pietà in the Chapel of the Sacrament may also have originated there. The Pietà was already in Sant’Agostino in the nineteenth century.
Remains
Exterior and interior layout
Sant’Agostino is built entirely of brick. Its exterior is simple and austere, with Gothic windows along the side walls and an upper cornice formed by trefoil-arched elements. The main façade has a portal and an oculus framed in decorated terracotta, while access is commonly through a doorway in the right side wall.
Inside, a broad single nave extends beneath exposed wooden roof trusses. It ends in a square central choir chapel flanked by two smaller square chapels, while further chapels and altars occupy the sides of the nave. A marble pulpit with Renaissance-style decoration bears the date 1524.
Entrance chapels and right-hand altars
Chapel of San Bartolo
The Chapel of San Bartolo occupies the counter-facade. Benedetto da Maiano’s marble altar, made in 1495, includes the Virgin and Child, female saints, and angels. Sebastiano Mainardi painted the vault with the four Doctors of the Church, Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory the Great. These formally recognized Christian theologians hold particular authority in Catholic teaching. On the adjoining wall, Mainardi painted Saint Gimignano, Saint Lucy, and Saint Nicholas of Bari. The chapel retains fifteenth-century maiolica floor tiles attributed to Andrea della Robbia. Maiolica is glazed earthenware used here for decorated architectural tiles. A wrought-iron screen dates from the nineteenth century.
First right-hand altar
The first altar on the right contains Pier Francesco Fiorentino’s 1494 panel of the Madonna enthroned with the Child and saints. A small donor figure identifies the Dominican friar Lorenzo di Bartolo. Vincenzo Tamagni painted the lunette above the panel in the early sixteenth century, including a Deposition of Christ.
Depositions and the third altar
Near the right-side entrance is a Deposition painted by Bartolo di Fredi in the second half of the fourteenth century. A second Deposition, by Biagio di Goro, occupies a niche rediscovered in 1908. The third right-hand altar is Baroque. Vincenzo Tamagni’s painted saints remain around a former niche that originally held Francesco di Valdambrino’s wooden Saint Anthony.
Fourth right-hand altar
The fourth right-hand altar is also Baroque. It formerly held the altarpiece now placed on the high altar, and its construction severely damaged fourteenth-century frescoes by Lippo Memmi on the wall. Fragments survive of a Magdalene, a young martyr in ancient-style dress, and Saint Margaret or possibly Saint Verdiana.
Between the fourth altar and the transept hangs Annibale Mazzuoli’s painting of Saint Catherine of Siena, transferred from San Domenico. Beside the doorway to the cloister is an early fourteenth-century relief by Tino da Camaino, with busts of four bishops. The quatrefoil between them originally held reliquaries of Saint Bartholomew.
Choir chapels and central works
Central choir chapel
The central choir chapel contains Benozzo Gozzoli’s fresco cycle of scenes from the Life of Saint Augustine, dated 1464–1465. The cycle comprises seventeen panels and was produced with assistance from Pier Francesco Fiorentino and Giusto d’Andrea.
High altar
The high altar holds Piero del Pollaiuolo’s 1483 altarpiece of the Coronation of the Virgin with saints and musician angels. The saints are Nicholas, Augustine of Hippo, Gimignano, Nicholas of Tolentino, and Jerome. Marco Di Piazza made the altar’s bas-relief.
Chapel to the right of the high altar
This chapel contains Bartolo di Fredi’s frescoes of scenes from the Life of the Virgin, painted in 1374–1375. They copy scenes painted in 1335 by Simone Martini, Ambrogio Lorenzetti, and Pietro Lorenzetti on the façade of the Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala in Siena, works that were later lost. The chapel’s altarpiece is Vincenzo Tamagni’s Birth of Mary, painted in 1523.
Chapel of the Sacrament
The chapel to the left of the high altar, also called the Chapel of the Sacrament, contains a Florentine-school panel from about 1430–1440. It depicts a Pietà with episodes from the Passion. The panel may have come from San Domenico and was already in Sant’Agostino during the nineteenth century.
Additional frescoes and altarpieces
In the middle of the nave, Benozzo Gozzoli’s fresco of Saint Sebastian with devotees shows the saint clothed and sheltering the praying population beneath a large cloak held by angels. Divine arrows associated with the plague descend from above, while Christ and the Virgin intercede for the people. The fresco was completed in 1464.
On the left wall, Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio’s 1511 panel depicts the Madonna enthroned with the Child and saints. At the first altar, Vincenzo Tamagni painted the Adoration of the Cross. Near the Chapel of the Sacrament, Sebastiano Mainardi’s 1487 fresco shows Saint Gimignano blessing three distinguished citizens of San Gimignano. It is positioned above the funerary monument of Friar Domenico Strambi, dated 1488 and identified as the fresco’s commissioner.
A rediscovered fresco of the Madonna of the Milk, attributed to Lippo Memmi and dated approximately 1314–1315, is set within a Baroque altar on the left wall. Together with the surviving altars, chapels, sculptures, wall paintings, and floor tiles, these works preserve the changing artistic character of Sant’Agostino from the fourteenth century through the Renaissance and later Baroque alterations.
