ABSTRACT
The Grand Duchy of Tuscany – and, with it, Siena – then passed to the dukes of Lorraine who in turn, with the exception of the Napoleonic period, continued to rule until 1859 and the emergence of the new Italian state. The translation of the Madonna of Provenzano from its original niche to its new place of honour was an event of some splendour, attended not only by the Sienese civic and ecclesiastical authorities, but also by the grand-duke's family. Like the events of 1594–95, it too was commemorated on a painted cover for civic accounts of the years 1610–—13. It thus marked the beginning of a long and close relationship between Siena, the Palio, and the new Italian monarchy. In retrospect, it also marked the transition to a new and intensely creative and formative period in the construction of modern Siena's civic identity and of the relationship between the Palio and the civil religion of modern Siena.
