Cintole senesi: molte immagini e una reliquia, in Cinturale: intersezioni e comparazioni a partire da Prato e dalla cintola, a cura di Andrea De Marchi e Isabella Lapi Ballerini (atti del convegno, Prato-Firenze, 10-11 gennaio 2018), “Iconographica. Studies in the history of images”, numero speciale, 2021, pp. 94-110

In the Sienese representations of the Assumption, the detail of the Virgin who drops her girdle in the hands of Saint Thomas appears only during the Trecento, reflecting then in the following century. Such an attribute can be likely justified by the presence in Siena of a relic of the half-belt of Mary, as part of a wealthy nucleus of sacred trophies which the ancient hospital of Santa Maria della Scala bought from Costantinople in 1359 (at the time of the so-called Governo dei Dodici), and still are preserved. Shortly thereafter Bartolomeo Bulgarini portrayed Saint Thomas at the foot of an Assumption painted for an altar in the hospital church, and Francesco di Vannuccio repeated a similar feature in a diptych ordered by a client linked to the Santa Maria della Scala. Since the hospital church had the title of the Annunciation – still today Santissima Annunziata –, the relics purchased in 1359 were the protagonists for century of a public ostension on the Marian anniversary of 25 March: a date which was of political significance, because on that day a popular revolt determined the change of government from the “Nove” to the “Dodici” in 1355. However in that and other occasions civic devotion focused on a Sacred Nail – Sacro Chiodo – to the detriment of the other relics. Thus the Sienese half-belt – on the contrary to the Prato Holy Girdle – was never able to attract a particular cult and veneration, as the events retraced in this contribution confirm.