Abstract
This paper evaluates the multiple meanings contained within Pietro Lorenzetti's Birth of
the Virgin altarpiece, created for the altar of St. Savinus in Siena, Italy, ca. 1335-1342. The
artwork was a part of the overarching Marian theme within liturgy and life in Siena. The
altarpiece is often touched upon by scholars in a cursory way, only truly being studied for its
formal qualities. Utilizing iconographic and contextual analysis as well as the theory of
somaesthetics, I argue the painting strengthens the connections women would have had with the
subject material through its portrayal of the feminine experience in early Renaissance Italy. I
show that this claim is asserted through the basin in which Mary is being washed, the placement
of the painting in the cathedral, and the sensory experience of the artwork. I examine how the
hexagonal basin that the infant Mary is washed in formed a unique connection between the
architectural space, Pietro’s painting, and the viewer. I submit that this basin can be understood
as a metonymy of the dome of the church resting on a hexagonal base, and that this unique
connection between the architectural space and Pietro’s painting is significant. Never before has
this basin been discussed in scholarship. This project shows the importance of this work not
simply just for the interior setting, but for its information on the sensory experience of the
average female Sienese citizen in pre-plague proto-Renaissance Italy. Beyond this, the painting
promoted the growth and power of the Nine, the ruling body during this time.