Museo dell'Opera Metropolitana, or dell'OPA

(One of the musts of Siena. It contains Duccio's masterpiece, the Maestà, and a number of other important works, and also gives access to the top of the facciatone, the intended façade of the new cathedral which was never built, from which there are great views.)

Open 09.00-19.00 daily. Note: this is not a detailed description of all the objects in the museum, but a summary of the items likely to be of most interest to the casual visitor. As Sienese museums are constantly being rearranged, some objects may no longer be where the notes say they are. Unfortunately, the signing in this particular museum is abysmal.

Ground floor: the sculpture gallery

Immediately after the ticket office there is a sculpture gallery (Room 10). To the left of the steps leading down into it are four rather beautiful early stone panels (late 13th century) of the Annunciation, Nativity, Flight into Egypt and Epiphany, taken from a church not far from Barontoli; and just beyond them on the next wall a frieze from a Roman sarcophagus - the only object remaining from the site of the Roman camp on which the Duomo was built. The rest of the room is dominated by statues of prophets and philosophers originally made for the façade of the Duomo, rather weather-worn but still with some good faces and poses. The heads tend to jut uncomfortably forward; this is because they were originally high up on the façade and intended to be seen from below. They are by Givanni Pisano (1245-1318), the son of the man who sculpted the pulpit in the Duomo. Note Moses on the left with rays of light protruding from his head. This is a traditional way of portraying Moses, whose face (according to Exodus chapter 34) shone so much when he came down from Mount Sinai that the Children of Israel were afraid to go near him. Sometimes, owing to an early mistranslation of the relevant passage, the rays are shown as horns, giving Moses a devilish air.

There are also two good works in the middle of the sculpture gallery: Donatello's tondo of the Virgin and Child from above the side door of the Duomo (where it has been replaced by a copy); and a beautiful marble panel (1438) by Jacopo della Quercia, the last work of Siena's most famous sculptor. It shows the Madonna and Child together with Cardinal Antonio Casini (who commissioned the work) being presented to the Madonna by St Anthony Abbot, looking anxious as if fearing that the Cardinal is not quite holy enough.

Leading off Room 10, Room 12 houses yet more battered statues by Pisano originally made for the Duomo, this time of the apostles. For some reason they were removed and placed in store at the turn of the 17th/18th centuries and replaced by copies by a sculptor called Mazzuoli. These in their turn were sold in 1890 to the Brompton Oratory in London, where they still are. At the end of this room there is the original of the group of Christ and two angels (in sinuous international Gothic style) that was made for the great side door for the nave of the projected new cathedral (see final paragraph below).

First Floor: Duccio's Maestà

This is the glory of the museum and one of the glories of Siena. A "maestà" is a picture that shows the Virgin "in majesty" surrounded by angels and saints. This sort of heavenly court is very much a Sienese invention. There is another big Maestà by Simone Martini in the Palazzo Pubblico, and one in the museum in San Gimignano by Lippo Memmi. But none bears comparison with Duccio's, the earliest and the inspiration for the others. A work of magical serenity, it was painted in 1308-11 for the main altar of the Duomo, Duccio being the most famous and fashionable artist of the period. When it was completed, it was carried in procession from Duccio's workshop to the Duomo accompanied by music and most of the population of Siena.There it stayed until 2506 when mediaeval work of this sort became unfashionable. It was removed from the high altar, cut into sections and relegated to side chapels and ultimately to the museum.

The work consists of the main panel plus some 50-odd smaller panels, some of which (shown on the side wall) were displayed above and below the main picture, and others (on the wall facing the main panel) were on the back, to be admired by people walking behind the altar. Not all the panels are here; when the painting was removed from the main altar, some were sold (three are in the National Gallery in London and nine in other museums) and some simply disappeared. Reproductions of some of missing ones have been put up among the real ones.

The main panel shows the Madonna and Child on a sumptuously inlaid throne with a cloth of gold laid over it. At the base of the throne a Latin inscription reads "Holy Mother of God, bring peace to Siena and life to Duccio, because he painted you thus". Kneeling in the front row of the painting are the then four patron saints of Siena: Ansano, Savino, Cescenzio and Vittore. Behind them on the left are St Catherine of Alexandria; St Paul (as so often with a long black beard); St John the Evangelist carrying his symbol, a book; and then a couple of angels. On the right, after the angels are St John the Baptist, as usual wearing skins and with unkempt hair from his time in the desert; St Peter, for once holding a book rather than a key; and St Agnes carrying her symbol, a lamb. At the very top of the picture the other apostles are portrayed. All the other figures can be recognized as angels from their wings. The painting used to have a carved Gothic frame, with pinnacles and arches, and the marks of where this once was can still be seen.

Although to our eyes all the figures have a stylized Byzantine look, on closer examination each has a different expression and even the angels are all slightly different. The greenish hue of the flesh is not deliberate; the pink pigment used at the time was painted over a green ground to give a pale and delicate hue, and unfortunately the fading of the pink with time has led to the current corpselike colour.

The main panel is a set-piece, carefully arranged according to certain conventions, rather like the final scene of a children's nativity play. But in the small panels Duccio could afford to adopt a more lively and animated style, and they are well worth looking at in detail. The ones on the far wall represent the Passion of Christ and are set out in strip cartoon fashion, starting in the bottom left corner and going up and down in a zig-zag. The scenes are as follows:

- entry into Jerusalem (bottom left);

- the washing of the feet (next to it at the top); and the last supper (immediately below);

- Christ's farewell to his apostles (immediately to the right); and Judas taking the bribe for betraying Christ (above);

- the kiss of Judas (above); and the agony in the garden (below);

- Peter denying that he had anything to do with Christ; and Christ before Annas the junior high priest (above);

- Christ accused by the Pharisees; and Christ before Caiaphas the senior high priest;

- Christ in the praetorium; and Christ before Pilate (last two panels on the bottom right).

Go now to the top left:

- Christ again before Pilate (above), and (below) before Herod;

- The crown of thorns (below); and the flagellation;

- Christ on the way to Calvary, and Pilate washing his hands;

- The crucifixion;

- The deposition from the cross, and the entombment;

- The Maries at the Sepulchre (above); and the descent into hell (note Christ standing firmly on the devil);

- The appearance at Emmaus, and "Noli mi tangere" (far right).

The small panels on the other wall are mostly of the life of the Virgin.

Also in this room there is a delightful early painting by Duccio of the Madonna and Child, fortunately with the flesh still fairly pink. This was painted about 1283, so a good 20 years before the Maestà. Note how the Child is tweaking the Virgin's veil. Further along the same wall there is a Birth of the Virgin by Pietro Lorenzetti, a Sienese master of the generation after Duccio. It is full of domestic detail: see how the attendant is feeling the bath water before bathing the child, and note Mary's elderly father outside being told of the birth by an attendant. The interior of the room and the bedclothes are probably very like those of a rich14th century Sienese lady.

Behind the Duccio Maestà, there are further rooms. The two on the right contain some good painted wooden statues, including a Madonna by Jacopo della Quercia in the first room (the smaller saints on either side are thought to be by his workshop rather than the master's own hand). And in the end room, there are strikingly tragic figures of Mary and St John on either side of a rather stiff and boring crucifix.

Second floor

This floor can be largely by-passed. Its main room is the "Sala del Tesoro", the room of the treasure, in which various gold, silver and other objects once in the Duomo are now displayed. Most are dirty and rather tatty looking. There is one large and gruesome casket with a saintly skull still inside. In the glass case in the wall opposite the entrance, there is a small but dramatic painted wooden crucifix by Giovanni Pisano that is worth a glance. And behind the door is the painting of the breast-feeding Madonna that was once in the Piccolomini altar in the Duomo (now replaced by a reproduction). This is a fine work by Paolo di Giovanni Fei of a subject much liked by the Sienese for whom milk had all sorts of symbolic meaning.

Third floor

Immediately at the top of the stairs is the "Sala della Madonna degli occhi grossi" (the room of the Madonna of the big eyes), after the painting in the middle of the room by a very early master usually called the Master of Tressa (after a place where one of the five known paintings by him was found). It was painted about 100 years before Duccio's Maestà, in a much more primitive style with round Romanesque eyes rather than Gothic almond ones. It used to stand above the high altar until replaced by Duccio's Maestà, and is renowned as the painting before which the Sienese successfully prayed on the eve of the battle of Montaperti in 1260, their most famous victory over their Florentine enemies.

On the far wall, there are three interesting pictures by Sano di Pietro of St Bernardino, Siena's great preacher saint. The two on either side of the main portrait show him preaching in front of the Palazzo Pubblico in the Campo, and in front of the church of San Francesco. Note how the practice in those days of segregating men and women in church extends even to informal preaching sessions in the street. On the wall to the left of the door there is a fine set of saints by Ambrogio Lorenzetti.

The next two rooms contain later Sienese of little interest, so we suggest you walk quickly through, pausing briefly to admire the large painting of St Paul (in a red robe, reading and perched on a narrow throne) by Domenico Beccafumi. In the background behind St Paul, there are scenes of his original conversion and his martyrdom. The work was painted in 1515 and with its vivid colours and movement is a complete contrast to the more austere and static works in the preceding rooms. Whereas Duccio was the first of the great Sienese painters, Beccafumi was the last. After him, Sienese work became maudlin and second rate.

Facciatone: panorama

At the end of the second room is a small doorway and spiral staircase out to an open air walkway from which another spiral staircase leads to the top of the unfinished façade arch of the planned new cathedral (started in 1335). This is probably the best viewpoint in Siena and truly panoramic, with marvellous views of the dome and roof of the Duomo; of Siena itself; and of the country for miles around.

San Niccolò in Sasso and the side door of the "new Duomo"

Back through the museum and downstairs to the exit, which is through the delightful small baroque church of San Niccolò in Sasso, dating from the late 1500s and early 1600s. Every surface is encrusted with intricate plasterwork and painting.

On leaving the church, turn briefly up the hill to the left to admire the intended side door of the "new Duomo", one of the most perfect Gothic doorways in existence. Unfortunately, however, the reproduction angels at the top look almost as battered as the originals in the museum.

1996, revised in 2003.