Borromini Attribution Shakes Sienese Baroque Scholarship

A new study by Professor Joseph Connors of Harvard University and Professor Machtelt Brüggen Israëls of the University of Amsterdam attributes the Cappella del Crocefisso in the church of San Martino in Siena to Francesco Borromini. The research, to be published in the September issue of The Burlington Magazine, challenges the long-held assumption that Siena was exclusively under the artistic influence of Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The chapel's design would mark Borromini's presence in a city dominated by the Chigi family, whose pope, Alexander VII (Fabio Chigi, r. 1655–1667), was a known patron of Bernini. The church of San Martino, with a facade begun in 1613 by Giovanni Fontana and a bell tower completed in 1738, houses works by Domenico Beccafumi, Guido Reni, and Guercino. If confirmed, the attribution would be a major revision of 17th-century Roman and Sienese artistic geography.