Ghigo Roli photographer

In 1502 Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini, future Pope Pius III, decided to create a library in the rectory of the Siena Cathedral to pay homage to his maternal uncle, Enea Silvio Piccolomini. The uncle, known as Pope Pius II, had been a great humanist and had collected an impressive book heritage. The decoration of this space along the north-western side of the Cathedral was entrusted to Bernardino di Betto, known as Pinturicchio who, assisted by his own workshop, completed the cycle of frescoes between 1503 and 1508. The sparkling colours and the fairy-tale scenes, with wonderful landscapes and luxurious court scenes, represent Enea Silvio Piccolomini’s life in a precise chronological succession, from his youth to the salient phases of his pontificate until his death. The rich decoration of the Piccolomini Library also extends to the vault which is mainly decorated with grotesques. Two panels in the centre depict two mythological scenes: Diana and Endymion and The Rape of Proserpina. The heart of the vault is occupied by the coat of arms of Cardinal Todeschini Piccolomini. All around there are other smaller panels dedicated to other mythological motifs such as marine thiasos, bucolic and bacchanal scenes. At the centre of the Library Pio III had the sculptural group of The Three Graces placed. It is a marble Roman copy (III century) of a hellenistic group and he had acquired it from Cardinal Prospero Colonna and was initially intended for his Roman palace.