The ceiling of the pilgrims' hostel

The ceiling of the pilgrims' dormitory

The ceiling decoration was executed between 1439 and 1440 by Agostino di Marsiglio. In the pilgrims' hall the painter painted five bays of the ceiling with the corresponding four connecting subarches. The elaborate articulation of the vault panels, the keystones and the subarches features the depiction of a considerable number of Old Testament figures and saints, alongside anonymous faces of persons connected to the hospital community. Each of the four vault panels, painted in blue with golden stars, bears at its center a roundel depicting a figure from the Old Testament or a prophet. The keystones show four generic faces; the subarches bear in sequence representations of saints, whose names are indicated in the connecting frame between one figure and another. The double bands that divide the vaults contain, within them, vegetal motifs, the coats of arms of the Comune, of the Popolo, of Santa Maria della Scala and of two rectors, Carlo d'Agnolino and Giovanni di Francesco Buzzichelli, the latter serving as rector at the time the ceiling's painted decoration was made. It has been hypothesized that the presence of Agnolino's coat of arms may refer to the active role played by the former rector, a man of great learning, in the development of the complex iconographic program in which fifty-six figures drawn from the ancient sphere of Christian tradition appear, alongside saints of more recent canonization, the four patrons of Siena — Ansano, Savino, Vittore and Crescenzio — as well as the local saints Galgano, Guglielmo da Malavalle and Mustiola. Also present are saints, martyrs, and Fathers of the Church.