The Frescoes

Here is a short description of the frescoes which have been studied.
Madonna and Child on a throne and Saints (1335-1338), by Ambrogio Lorenzetti.
The fresco is located on the wall at the back of the Piccolomini Chapel.
Ambrogio Lorenzetti frescoed the wall commissioned by Guiduccio Ruffaldi.
In the years going from 1596 and 1604, the fresco was partly hidden by the building of a marble altar, by Flaminio del Turco, upon commission of the Piccolomini family.
At the same time, as according to the desire of Ascanio Piccolomini, the archbishop of Siena, 'The Adoration of the Three Kings', painted by Sodoma, was put on the altar and the fresco was definitely hidden. Only in 1944, when the painting was moved for security reasons did the work of Lorenzetti see the light again.
A few months later, the pictorial surface was cleaned and reconsolidated. Consequently to the discovery, between 1947 and 1951, the altar was moved to the opposite wall and at the feet of the fresco, a wooden altar was put.