This is a brief description of the saints most portrayed in Sienese art with an indication of the symbols which identify them.

ST AGATHA

A virgin martyr from Roman times, from Catania in Sicily. She was a girl of noble family who was pursued by a senior Roman official. She resisted his advances and in revenge he caused her to be tortured in various ways, including the cutting off of her breasts. She is portrayed in art rather macabrely carrying her cut-off breasts on a dish. By an association of shapes, she became the patron saint of bell-founders, and plump round loaves are blessed in church on her feast day.

ST AGNES (Sant' Agnese)

A Roman martyr, circa 300 AD. Little of known of her life, except that she was a virgin who refused to marry, and was very young when she died, perhaps no more than 12 or 13. She was supposed to have been killed by being stabbed in the throat by a sword. Doubtless because of the similarity of her name with the Latin word for lamb, agnus, her symbol is a lamb. She is often portrayed in Sienese painting as one of the saints standing on either side of the Virgin, easily recognisable by the small lamb that she carries.

ST AMBROSE (San Ambrogio)

St Ambrose is one of the four great Latin doctors of the church, along with St Jerome, St Augustine and St Gregory the Great. He was the Governor of the Roman province of Aemilia and Liguria, the capital of which was Milan, and subsequently became Bishop of Milan, in response to popular acclaim. He played an important role in the politics of that bit of the Roman Empire. He also wrote on various doctrinal subjects, and is often portrayed in Sienese polyptiches carrying a book and wearing a red cardinal's hat - although cardinals were not invented until much later, the doctors of the church are usually given honorary cardinal status in sacred art.

ST ANTHONY THE HERMIT

A third century saint, when he was about 20, he went to live in the desert near his home in Lower Egypt, spending his time in prayer. He underwent violent temptations, spiritual and physical, e.g. being beaten by devils (which German artists like in particular to portray - a heaven-sent opportunity for Hieronymus Bosch to paint exotic devils). He successfully overcame his temptations and spent the rest of his life living in a cave near the Red Sea, gathering disciples around him. This desert group became the first monastic community, so St Anthony is the father of monasticism. So healthy was his austere desert life that he lived to over 100. He is usually portrayed in a rocky desert landscape, in or near a cave. He was regarded as a healer of both men and animals, and one of his symbols is a pig; another is a bell.

ST AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO (San Agostino Manaco)

Born in Algeria in 345, the son of St Monica, he became one of the great doctors of the church. As a young man he underwent agonising internal conflicts between the desire to marry and have a worldly life and an impulsion to dedicate himslf to God. God won, and he formed a monastic community, the Augustinian friars who still exist today. His works are a major part of Western philosophical thought, although their influence has not always been happy.

He is not much portrayed in Sienese art, which prefers his namesake, the local San Agostino Novello, but both he and his mother St Monica appear in frescoes in San Lorenzo al Lago. He is usually dressed as a monk, although he was also long Bishop of Hippo, and is occasionally shown in episcopal vestments with pastoral staff, sometimes with a heart of fire.

ST BENEDICT (San Benedetto)

Founder of the Benedictine order. Born around 480 at Norcia in Umbria, he went to study in Rome, but bid not like the gay urban life and went to Subiaco to live as a hermit. A community of monks then invited him to be their abbot, and from that grew one of the great monastic orders. His story is told in the wonderful series of frescoes in the cloister of Monteoliveto. He is normally dressed as a monk, dressed on the brown robes of the Benedictines.

ST BERNARDINO (1380-1444)

He is with St Catherine of Siena one of the city's main patron saints and one of the most portrayed in Sienese art, instantly recognisable by brown Franciscan robes and his hollow cheeks (he look as though he has left his false teeth at home). At the age of 20, when the staff of the local hospital died of the plague, he gathered together a group of young people to run the hospital and to nurse the plague victims. He then became a Franciscan friar and embarked on a hugely successful career as a popular preacher, the Billy Graham of his day. At the end of his sermons he would hold up a plaque with the initials IHS (from the Greek words for Holy Name of Jesus) surrounded by rays. This symbol is now found in churches all over the world, and no picture of St Bernardino is complete without it. Sometimes three mitres are shown at his feet, symbol of the three bishoprics he refused during his lifetime (Siena, Ferrara and Urbino).

ST CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA

A somewhat legendary fourth century saint. Of royal birth, she is said to have refused marriage with the Roman Emperor because she was a 'bride of Christ', and overcame in debate 50 philosophers who were sent to explain to her the errors of Christianity. She protested against the persecution of Christians, and the authorities tried to martyr her by breaking her on a wheel (hence Catherine wheel fireworks), but the wheel broke. She was then beheaded. In art she is often shown with her broken wheel, and also often with a book, symbol of her erudition, and a palm or a sword. Sometimes she wears a crown in recognition of her royal birth.

ST CATHERINE OF SIENA (c.1347-1380)

One of the city's patron saints, Catherine Benincasa was born of a large Sienese family in about 1347. She had visions from the age of seven, refused to marry and joined the Dominican Order, devoting herself to caring for the sick and needy (including patients in the Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala in Siena). She attracted a group of young people round her to help with her good works, so she obviously had a certain charisma. When she was about 30, she began to take an interest in affairs of state, mediating between Pope and civil government.

There is a painting of her at the back of the church of San Domenico, painted if not from life at least by somebody who had known her. She is usually portrayed in Dominican black and white, carrying a lily, symbol of purity.

ST JEROME (San Geronimo)

Born in Dalmatia in the fourth century, he was one of the most learned men of the Church, making the first real translation of the Bible into Latin (then the main international language) out of the original Hebrew and Greek. He was, however, extremely argumentative and disputatious. At one point early in his career he had a dream in which God criticised him for being a Ciceronian rather than a Christian. He took this to heart and in penance spent several years as a hermit in a cave in the desert, befriending or being befriended by the local fauna, including a lion. In art he is often portrayed during this stage in his life, sitting in his cave with his pet lion. He is also shown writing at his desk, often with a cardinal's hat nearby. Cardinals had not been invented in the fourth century, but his status as a great doctor of the church gave him retrospective cardinal's status.

ST JOHN THE BAPTIST (San Giovanni Battista)

An itinerant preacher who went round baptising people, including Jesus. He lived on a diet of wild honey and locusts, and is usually portrayed dressed in a sheepskin or camelskin. His baptism of Christ in the river Jordan is a favourite scene in art, usually with the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove descending from heaven above Christ's head.

John was the son of Zachariah, a temple priest, and his wife Elizabeth, who was a cousin of the Virgin Mary. They were childless and of advanced years when an angel appeared to Zachariah to announce that his wife would have a son. Zachariah would not believe it, so to prove the point the angel promptly struck him dumb. This scene is occasionally represented, as is the 'Visitation', when the Virgin Mary, shortly after the Annunciation, went to call on her cousin Elizabeth, who was by that time six months pregnant with John.

The other favourite scene of artists is when Salome, the daughter of Herod and Herodias, asked her father for John's head on a plate as a reward for dancing before Herod at a feast. Herod was not slow to comply, as he had it in for St John the Baptist who had denounced the incestuous union between himself and Herodias - they were uncle and niece.

ST JOHN THE EVANGELIST (San Giovanni Evangelista)

Also known as St John the Apostle. Author of the fourth gospel and one of Christ's twelve Apostles. His symbol as an evangelist is an eagle. He was a Galilean fisherman who, with his brother James and St Peter, was called by Christ to join him. He is by traditional the disciple whom Christ loved the most, and is often portrayed leaning on Christ's breast at the Last Supper. According to John's gospel, when on the cross Christ entrusted his mother Mary to St John's care, and he is also often portrayed at the foot of the cross standing next to the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalen. Another of his emblems is a cup with a viper, in memory of a passage he is alleged to have had with a pagan priest of Diana of Ephesus who challenged him to drink a poisoned cup.

St John is the patron saint of writers and all concerned with the production of books.

ST LUKE (San Luca)

St Luke the Evangelist, the author of the third Gospel, was a doctor by profession. His symbol as an evangelist is an ox. He is said to have painted a portrait of the Virgin Mary, and is sometimes represented in Flemish - but not Italian - art in the act of painting her. He is the patron saint of doctors and artists.

ST MARK (SAN MARCO)

St Mark the Evangelist, author of the fourth Gospel and a companion of Christ. His symbol as an evangelist is a winged lion. He is thought after Christ's death to have gone to Alexandria to preach, and died or was martyred there. His relics were brought to Venice in the ninth century and enshrined in the original church of St Mark's, the predecessor of today's St Mark's. He became the patron saint of Venice, which also took over the winged lion as its symbol.

ST MARY MAGDALEN

Tradition has it that she was a prostitute, and the "sinner" who anointed Christ's feet in the house of Simon in the Gospel of St Luke. She was present at his crucifixion, and is often portrayed at the foot of the cross with the Virgin Mary and St John the Evangelist. She was also one of those who went to his tomb and found it empty after the Resurrection, and was the first person to whom Christ appeared - both scenes which are also much depicted in art. She is frequently shown with very long hair, sometimes covering her nakedness - presumably an allusion to her sinful life before she became a follower of Christ. Her emblem is a pot of ointment.

ST MATTHEW

St Matthew the Evangelist, author of the first Gospel. His symbol as an Evangelist is a man because his gospel emphasised the human ties of Christ. He was martyred, although it is unclear when and how. He is sometimes portrayed - for instance by Caravaggio - sitting at a desk writing his gospel, with an angel at his elbow guiding his hand or holding the inkwell. He is also portrayed on occasion with a sword or a spear (emblems of his martyrdom), or a money-bag or money-box as he was a tax collector before becoming one of Christ's Apostles.

ST PAUL (San Paolo)

Born shortly after Christ, he was first a persecutor of Christians but had a dramatic conversion to Christianity when he had a vision of Christ while travelling to Damascus. Thenceforth he became one of the main proseletysers of Christ's doctrines and was highly influential in shaping early Christianity. He is usually portrayed as bald with a long dark beard, sometimes with a sword and a book.

ST PETER

The leader of Christ's 12 apostles, he counts as the first pope. He was martyred by crucifixion. When he told his killers that he felt honoured to be crucified like Christ, they tried to make his crucifixion different by putting his cross upside down. This scene occasionally appears in art, but more often he is shown in line-ups of saints carrying a key or a set of keys, representing the key of heaven.

ST SEBASTIAN

A Roman soldier, he was martyred by the Roman authorities when they discovered that he was a Christian. He was sentenced to be shot with arrows. This did not work, however, and he finally succumbed after being beaten with cudgels. He is usually portrayed naked or semi-naked, tied to a tree and stuck with anything from one to a dozen arrows (a small fresco in the Palazzo Pubblico shows him with no fewer than 18 arrows, symmetrically arranged). He was a favourite subject for renaissance painters, largely because it gave them an excuse to paint a young male nude.