Abstract: Part Five considers Francesco di Bartolomeo Alfei's involvement towards the end of the 1450s in a prestigious project to repair the bridge over the River Arbia, south of Siena: his brief apparently being to fresco the walls of a new chapel there (for which he was well paid; earning more pro rata than his contemporaries, Giovanni di Paolo and Sano di Pietro had done when producing the new altarpiece for the Fraternita di Santa Maria degli Angeli e Compagnia di San Francesco). The contract to repair the bridge is analysed in detail with particular focus on the relationship between Francesco di Bartolomeo Alfei and the individual who was put in charge around 1457: Agostino delle Bombarde, Siena's official engineer and canon maker.

Keywords: River Arbia bridge; strategic repair work; Siena; Agostino delle Bombarde; Leonardo Benvoglienti; a new chapel.

When first embarking on this account of the art and government service of Francesco di Bartolomeo Alfei I was not optimistic that I would find any startling new evidence about him. It was enough perhaps, to set him in the context of his time and outline as clearly as possible the various commissions he was involved with. I was in fact extremely fortunate in uncovering a large amount of material that threw new light on the artist's involvement with the Fraternita di Santa Maria degli Angeli e Compagnia di San Francesco, as well as stimulating new perspectives on the ways in which little-known artists like Francesco di Bartolomeo Alfei might have contributed to the societies into which they were born. One set of records appeared in the most exciting and unexpected way to draw together several diverse themes I had been working on. Viewed in the round they concerned what I refer to here as the Ponte d’Arbia project: ‘Preserving the Honour of Siena’.

The records indicate that some time between 1458 and 1462 Francesco di Bartolomeo Alfei became involved in a prestigious government project to repair the deteriorated bridge over the Arbia river to the south of Siena. Significantly, this project appears to have involved not only the city's chief canon maker and engineer, Agostino delle Bombarde – who had previously been co-opted to the war effort waged against Jacopo Piccinino – but also Leonardo Benvoglienti, the individual who, in 1458, referred to Francesco di Bartolomeo Alfei as his friend.