In the oleographs and the overly derided “panforte style” dictating the architectural and furniture designs of that period, in everything from wrought iron to upholstery, the polar star was the Exhibition of Ancient Sienese Art in 1904. Called for by Mayor Alessandro Lisini (also a historian of the Contrade), the exhibition gathered in 40 areas of the Palazzo Comunale some 2,000 items from the 1200s to the 1700s, works of art both major and minor, sacred and secular. On17 April Vittorio Emanuele III inaugurated the exhibition, sending echoes around the world. If among   scholars the scientic study of art from Siena’s golden age was relaunched, the popular imagination of the Sienese set the mythic period of “Siena-ness” in a vision of the 1300s romanticized and embellished by fantasy.

The new Historic Procession, inaugurated for an Extraordinary Palio, placed behind the Carroccio a 2nd wagon portraying the Allegory of Peace as painted by Amrogio Lornezetti in the Palazzo Comunale. The Historic Procession, with its explicit conjuring of the erstwhile pomp of the city and the old City-State, expressed the historic memory of Siena’s identity, a past once again present and real. A sort of “myth of the eternal return,” such as those dear to Mircea Eliade, it was enacted in the Piazza del Campo, the “theater of the Sienese.”

Paradoxically the “metahistoricalness” of the Palio was not found an unchanging ritual, but in continual innovations to keep the present in tune with the past. Innovation had to speak the language of tradition. Thus in 1919, after the War, for the veterans who attended the Palio the “flag-waving of victory” was introduced, performed by 17 Stardard-Bearers, each in time to the beats of his own drummer, immediately before the horses came out into the Piazza from the Courtyard. The innovation immediately became ritual because it was congenial, because it represented the eruption into the Piazza of an excited “order-disorder” after the impeccable, studied, slow rhythms of the Historic Procession.

Representing “disorder,” the entropy that verges on throwing into crisis the rules and order of things, there were, as always, the chaotic Start and the race itself, which soon found new heroes. The jockeys came from the Plain of Empoli, Monte Amiata, the Maremma and upper Lazio. Among them, Angelo “Picino” Meloni excelled, one of the all-time greats. Coming from Canapina on Monte Cimino, he ran 52 times, wore the colors of 15 Contrade, won 13 Palios for 7 Contrade, 4 for the Goose to which he was closely attached. Meloni showed a rough and exceptional racing style and great physical strength. Despite a disabled arm, he rode with gusto, riding crop flying. In August 1909 he won for the Dragon, using his whip on the Shell and the Panther. The next year he won for the Ram, taking his whip to the Shell and the Wave. Artfully controlling his horse, he won for the Porcupine in 1913. His predominance in the Piazza was mitigated by the fact that in 1907, for fear of the secret clannish deals between jockeys, a rule was passed to bar close relatives from running in the same Palio: Meloni made room for “Meloncino,” his son Corrado, who went on to win two Palios. Meloni had several supporting actors. Domenico “Scansino” Fradiacono won twice for the Tower in 1896. Astride the turn of the century, Scansino  ran 30 Palios, of which he won 7. Aldo “Bubbolo” Mantovani was a rarity: one of few jockeys to be a native Sienese. He first ran in 1910, took part in 31 Palios, and won 4. Alduino “Zaraballe” Emidi used to introduce himself in a rather direct way, almost his personal slogan: “My name is Zaraballe, I come from Apulia, and I’ve got good thighs.” With those thighs, from 1902 to 1922, he rode 22 horses in the Palio, winning twice.