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Galgano che conficca la spada nella roccia
Artist: Urbano da Cortona
Year: 1466
Current location: Museo civico e diocesano d'arte sacra di San Galgano
Original location: Chiesa di San Sebastiano o della Compagnia di San Galgano
DESCRIPTIVE INFORMATION
Documentary sources narrate that, out of fear of Galgano's new monastic foundation, which had received papal approval, some "envious" individuals, perhaps the monks of the nearby Abbey of Serena or the parish priest of Chiusino himself, broke the sword Galgano had thrust into the stone, unable to extract it and incurring the deadly punishment of divine vengeance. Upon his return from Rome, the saint was invited by the Lord to thrust the sword again in the same place, and it stuck even more firmly.
The iconography has illustrious precedents in 14th-century models, such as the relief by Giovanni d'Agostino now in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Siena. The work, executed by Urbano da Cortona, a pupil of Donatello, was likely located on the façade of the Ognissanti Monastery in Siena.
Galgano che conficca la spada nella roccia