Confraternity of the Madonna under the Vaults of the Hospital and the Society of Executors of Pious Dispositions

The Confraternity of the Disciplinati of the Most Holy Mary, later the Society of Executors of Pious Provisions, is the oldest lay brotherhood located in the undergrounds of Santa Maria della Scala. Originally founded in the Cathedral of Siena, the existence of the confraternity, devoted to pious works, is even mentioned in a letter by Saint Catherine. On 14 April 1785 a grand-ducal decree included the company among those suppressed, reforming it as the Society of Executors of Pious Provisions dedicated to charitable works, but depriving it of the religious aspects. Only in 1792 did the Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinand III definitively restore the Society as a religious confraternity. Its artistic heritage, which over the centuries has been enriched both with furnishings and works, also due to bequests from artists to whom the same institution awarded scholarships, is still substantial today, although mostly kept at the headquarters in via Roma where, in fact, numerous works such as paintings and furnishings of the Sienese school are found. At Santa Maria della Scala a beautiful wooden Crucifix is still preserved among the terracotta figures of Saint Bernardino and Saint Catherine, which tradition indicates as the one that induced Saint Bernardino to wear the Franciscan habit. On the other altar of the oratory there is instead a canvas by Alessandro Casolani with the Madonna and Child and Saints Peter and Paul. The Sacristy preserves, among other things, interesting frescoes attributed to Andrea Vanni and Luca di Tommè. During the restoration works of the ancient hospital, at the end of the last century, along the access staircase to the company of the Disciplinati a vast fresco cycle from the early fourteenth century, depicting monks and hermits, came to light. This extraordinary pictorial complex, known as “Tebaide”, is attributed to the Sienese painter Lippo Vanni.

From 7 November, the “Tebaide” is visitable within the museum route. The cycle of frescoes, datable to the early 1340s, decorates the entrance hall of the ancient company of the Disciplinati, today the historic seat of the Society of Executors of Pious Provisions, which promoted and carried out the restoration intervention thanks to the support of Robert Cope, president of the Vaseppi Foundation.
Found in 1999 during the works directed by architect Guido Canali, the “Tebaide” depicts the life of the hermits in the desert of Thebes, inspired by the Lives of the Holy Fathers of friar Domenico Cavalca: a tale of meditation, prayer and contemplative life of extraordinary intensity. A masterpiece of fourteenth-century Siena, the work represents one of the most significant artistic discoveries of recent decades. The company also preserves a collection of study essays produced by the principal Sienese artists of the nineteenth century, the result of the Alunnato Biringucci, a scholarship program promoted thanks to bequests from confraters and benefactors.