A showstopping reevaluation of Renaissance roots
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Florence is usually given all the Renaissance acclaim, but “Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350,” makes the case for the more southern city’s role in the artistic developments of Western art history.
This major exhibition of early Sienese painting, a collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art and first showed in New York, is a rare opportunity to see artworks from this brief, transformative period outside of Italy. More than 100 artworks — both large-scale commissions and private devotional pieces — illustrate an innovative, experimental period that drew on a complex array of influences.
Duccio di Buoninsegna, the most esteemed and influential artist, is represented by a Madonna and Child. Set on a gold ground and reminiscent of both Byzantine icons and French Gothic ivory carvings, this affecting work introduces the exhibition and establishes Duccio’s sense of radical creativity.
The exhibition will bring together several surviving panels from the monumental double-sided altarpiece known as the 'Maestà', painted by Duccio for the city’s cathedral. This is the first double-sided altarpiece in Western painting, and it marks a fundamental shift in narrative art.
Twelve sections of the show explore broad themes and include works by the younger generation, Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti and Simone Martini, the former two likey having trained in Duccio’s studio.
Although none of these artists survived the plague that decimated the city around 1350, their legacy influenced generations of artists in the ensuing centuries. The exhibition showcases a magnificent slice of artmaking rarely elevated to such heights.
Image: Duccio di Buoninsegna, The Temptation of Christ on the Mountain, ca. 1308–11. © Copyright The Frick Collection / photo Michael Bodycomb
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