The fresco cycle of the Old Sacristy

The pivot and origin of the cycle is located at the center of the ribbed vault where the Christ Pantocrator soars. Depicted in a mandorla, surrounded by angels, in the act of blessing. On Christ’s knees rests an open book, on which is read a phrase from the Gospel of John «Ego sum lux mundi qui sequitur me non ambulat in tenebris sed habebit lumen vite», a clear reference to Saint Bernardino, a significant figure in 15th-century Siena. In the side panels are the four evangelists, though only Saint Matthew and Saint John remain, and in the upper and lower panels, the church doctors depicted in pairs: Saint Ambrose and Saint Jerome, Saint Augustine and Pope Gregory, the latter pair shown seated on a cloud. Around these panels, finally, in a deteriorated state, are the ten prophets. Regarding the iconographic program of the walls of the cycle, far more complex and erudite, it included the depiction of the Apostles’ Creed, divided into ten sections, like the bays of the walls, following a scheme where each bay is divided into an upper lunette and a lower rectangle. In the upper lunette, the articles of faith are represented alongside an apostle and a prophet with a cartouche aiding in the understanding of the depiction; in the lower rectangle, scenes drawn from the Old and New Testament related to the creed article above are depicted. Perhaps the richest depiction is that of the Last Judgment, in the seventh bay, on the wall adjacent to the corridor. Vecchietta achieves an extraordinary result in this fresco, especially in the expressiveness of the characters and the emotional tension of the scene. In the upper lunette, in the center, the figure of Christ is surrounded by angels, prophets, saints, the Madonna, and Saint John. The angels at the feet of the Madonna and Saint John hold two books on which are inscribed the precepts of Santa Maria della Scala and the list of the capital vices, directed at the damned. At Christ’s feet is Saint Michael who separates the blessed, guided by angels, from the damned, driven to hell by demons. Below this scene is the tragic episode of Daniel’s Vision of the Chariot of Fire. Christ casts a trail of flames toward the damned, who despair, creating a sharp separation from the band of the blessed placed to the left, who, unlike the damned, are calm and elegant.