Rediscovered 14th-century fresco complex opens to public – The

An extraordinary masterpiece of medieval frescoes has been rediscovered and restored in the Santa Maria della Scala Museum building in Siena. Thebaid, a group of frescoes created by Lippo Vanni in the early 1340s, will return to public view on Friday 7 November.

These murals were painted over centuries ago. Restoration work in 1999 showed for the first time that there were surviving paintings beneath the whitewash. Two years later, after the false ceiling was removed, much of the mural remained intact, although much of it was covered with layers of whitewash. It took another 20 years to begin the full excavation and restoration of the surviving murals.

“Thebaid” is an epic poem by the 1st century Roman poet Statius, which tells the story of the mythical Theban Civil War in several episodes. It was not very popular in antiquity, but was influential in medieval literature. However, there are no mythological scenes or any references to ancient epics in the frescoes. Like the poem, its layout is episodic, but the Thebes it depicts is the Thebes of the Egyptian desert, where early Christian hermits known as the Desert Fathers lived a life of penance, prayer, manual labor, and asceticism.

It decorates the entrance hall of the headquarters of the religious society Compagnia dei Disciplinati (“Disciplinary Company”), which is located in the crypt of the Spedale di Santa Maria della Scala, one of the oldest hospitals in Europe and located in front of the Siena Cathedral. The Compagnia dei Disciplinati is a lay brotherhood dedicated to public charity, prayer and repentance through the observance of strict rules and a simple lifestyle. They whipped themselves with whips while repenting of their sins. The brothers practiced asceticism in the lecture hall next to the frescoed foyer. The examples of noble hermits and saints on the walls helped prepare them spiritually for penitential self-mutilation.

The image is taken from “The Lives of the Desert Fathers”, a late 4th century travelogue and hagiography translated from ancient Greek into the vernacular around 1330 by the Pisa monk Domenico Cavalca. These frescoes were painted less than a decade after translations brought ancient texts back to prominence in Tuscany.