It was at this time that the artistic Italian mind
seems to have realized the truth, which has only come to be recognized
again in quite recent times, that a hospital building should be as
fine a structure as the finances of a city will permit. It was felt
that nothing was too good for the ailing citizens and that the city
honored itself by making its public buildings a monument of artistic
purpose. The earliest example of how well this was accomplished is to
be found at Siena, whose hospital continues to be down to the present
time one of the most interesting objects of admiration for the
visitor. Portions of this Siena hospital as it now exists were built
as early as the last decade of the thirteenth and the first decade of
the fourteenth century. It was during the first half of the fourteenth
century that it was resolved to make the building as beautiful in the
interior by means of great artistic decoration and frescoes as it was
imposing on the exterior. It was not for a century and a half later
that Milan's magnificent hospital took on its modern shape, though the
city had been always famous for its care of the sick. The hospital
movement of the thirteenth century, however, culminated in monuments
as famous and as architecturally beautiful as any that have been built
in recent years.

To take, for example, that of Siena, a good {270} description of which
may be found in The Story of Siena, by G. Gardner. (Dent, London,
1902.) The buildings occupy the whole side of the Piazzo del Duomo,
directly opposite the facade. They constitute almost as striking a bit
of architecture as any edifice of the period, and contain a
magnificent set of frescoes, some of them of the fourteenth century,
many others of later centuries. The Siena school of painting in the
fourteenth century was doing some of the best art work of the time,
and as a consequence the hospital has been of perennial interest.
Artists and amateurs and dilettante visitors have gladly spent time in
studying and admiring its artistic treasures at nearly all times, but
more especially in recent years. The sympathetic admiration for its
art has led to a better appreciation of the motives of the generation
that built it, than even the sublime humanitarian purpose which
dictated it or the work for suffering humanity which it accomplished.

It is typical of the times in many ways. We have only just begun again
in very modern times, as we have already said, to consider