Siena: the Rise of Painting, 1300-1350
Reviewed by Ed Voves
Visitors to the Metropolitan
Museum of Art may be surprised to learn the identity of the most expensive art
work ever purchased by The Met. It was not a landscape by Van Gogh or – as I
thought - the portrait of Juan de Pareja by Velasquez.
Back in 2004, The Met paid $45 million for a painting “no bigger than a sheet of typing paper.” That was how, in the lead paragraph of its article, the New York Times reported the purchase of a late-medieval Madonna and Child created in the Italian city-state of Siena,.
The Times’ description of Madonna
and Child was a case of being accurate to a fault. Yes, the painting is modest
in its measurements, but masterpieces are not determined by size. Moreover, the
Met’s acquisition was a work by one of the great innovators of art history, Duccio di Buoninsegna.
Of these exhibited works, an astonishing number were created by Duccio or the handful of other Sienese masters who made the first half of the 1300's, Siena's golden age. Others, by little known or mysterious, yet to be identified, artists testify to the influence of Duccio or of Pietro Lorenzetti on the art and culture of their times.
An especially notable member of the supporting cast of Siena: the Rise of Painting is Enthroned Virgin by Goro di Gregorio. The curators believe that this rare work of art - the only surviving terracotta sculpture from Italy during the early 1300's - was created as a working model for a goldsmith's commission to make an altapiece.
This is very likely to be the correct explanation of the Enthroned Virgin's function. Goro di Gregorio was both an accomplished goldsmith as well as the leading sculptor of Siena during this era.
Yet, it should be noted that the basic pose of Enthroned Virgin closely follows that of The Met's Madonna and Child. It lacks the figure of the Christ Child, an important detail for a finished devotional statue. But the right hand of the Virgin is missing and the left badly damaged. Might a separate Christ Child have been modeled and kiln-fired to be placed in the Virgin Mary's now missing hands? If so, this beautiful statue may well be a three-dimensional version of The Met's $45 million "typing paper" masterpiece.
Siena: the Rise of Painting, 1300-1350 is a joint endeavor of The Met with the National Gallery in London. The curators of the exhibition - Joanna Cannon, Caroline Campbell, Stephen Wolohojian, Imogen Tedbury and Laura Llewellyn - have combined their efforts to assemble an array of top-tier works of religious art from the fourteenth century, the trecento as it is called in Italy.
The galleries of Siena: the Rise of Painting are so richly endowed with masterpieces that Duccio’s “small wonder” almost gets lost in their company.
Almost.
Duccio, along with his younger contemporary from Florence, Giotto di Bondone (c.1267-1337), was the founder of Western painting as it has developed since the Middle Ages. This was the moment of the rise of painting – characterized by professional artists whose works were signed or otherwise documented - alluded to in the exhibition title.
This pivotal moment in the story of human creativity is immortalized by the proud inscription on one of the exhibition's truly "signature" works:
"Petrus
pictor, quondam Lorenzetti qui fuit de Senis” (“The painter Pietro del fu
Lorenzetti who was from Siena”)
There are no paintings by Giotto in the Met’s exhibition. But direct comparison of the works of Duccio and Giotto is possible. The Met is one of the select group of U.S. museums with at least one painting by each of these masters in its collection.
On view in Gallery 601 at the Met is Giotto's The Adoration of the Magi, painted around 1320. It is a small masterpiece, too, but in theme and style it is very much in the spirit of Giotto's famous narrative scenes in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua.
Ed Voves, Photo (2024) Giotto's Adoration of the Magi at The Met
Giorgio Vasari, writing in the late 1500’s, gave the lion’s share of credit to Giotto for pioneering “the great art of painting as we know it today …”
Many modern historians, while acknowledging that Vasari was biased in favor of fellow artists from Florence, have followed his lead. Works by artists from Sienalike Simone Martini's Virgin and Child with Four Saints and a Dominican Nun are held to illustrate the prevailing "medievalism" of Siena in contrast to the bold explorations of pictrial space by their rivals in Florence.
A pilgrimage to The Met’s Gallery 999, where Siena: the Rise of Painting is on view, hopefully will lead many art lovers to take a second look at Siena's role in the “rise of painting.” Wisely, the exhibition curators do not belabor the issue of Siena vs. Florence. There were multiple paths to the Renaissance and the road leading from Siena was an important one indeed.
If Duccio led the way, other Sienese artists of genius followed in quick succession. Siena: the Rise of Painting focuses on four major artists who formed a dynasty of achievement which would not be equaled until a century later in Florence during the era of Donatello.
The Met exhibition reveals contributions by Siena's "big four" to innovations usually credited to Florence in the 1400's: fresco painting and one point (or vanishing point) perspective.
Among the rarest works on view in Siena: the Rise of Painting are two sinopia designs for fresco paintings of the Annunciation. These, dating to the mid-1330's, were created by Ambrogio Lorenzetti (active 1319–47).
Sinopia was the red-brown highlight color brushed on to the wet plaster base to delineate the underlying composition of the picture. This would then be painted with colored pigments before the plaster could harden. Ambrogio's designs were over-painted later by a less accomplished hand. During modern-day restoration, his sinopia designs were rediscovered and preserved.
Ambrogio Lorenzetti reused this Annunciation design for his last signed painting, dating to 1344. He chose a square format, very unusual for the 1300's but much favored by later painters.
This tremendous work of art was graced with all the technical skill that Ambrogio could muster. This is especially notable in the way he treated the floor under Gabriel's and Mary's feet. The black and white tiles appear to diminish in size as they recede into the background.
Here we see one of the first, perhaps the very first, demonstrations of linear, one-point, perspective. Here, in Siena, the Italian Renaissance may be said to have begun.
Ironically, the great breakthrough in art which led to the "rise" of painting in Siena resulted from a masterpiece of sculpture. This was a monumental pulpit carved in marble by Nicola Pisano between 1265-1268. Narrative scenes from the New Testament adorned the sides of this pulpit, made for the cathedral of Siena.
Sculpting in a deep, almost three-dimensional, relief, Pisano brought the sacred history of Christianity to life. His pulpit also revealed the potential of narrative depiction in other genres of art. One young artist from Siena artist evidently was very inspired: Duccio di Buoninsegna.
Little is known of Duccio's early life until 1285 when he painted the Ruccelai Madonna for a church in Florence. This powerful work was greatly influenced by Byzantine icons.The art of the Christian East would continue to influence Duccio, but when he was commissioned to paint a massive altarpiece for Siena's cathedral, he embellished it with narrative scenes drawn from Pisano's pulpit.
Duccio's moment of triumph came on June 9, 1311 when the huge altarpiece was installed in Siena Cathedral to great acclaim. Today, it is very difficult to grasp the revolutionary impact of Duccio's Maestà because of the shocking mistreatment it has received over the centuries.
Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights
reserved
Original photography, copyright of Ed Voves
Introductory Image: Ed Voves, Photo (2024) Detail of Pietro Lorenzetti’s Pieve Polyptych (the Tarlati Altarpiece). Measurements below.
Ed Voves, Photo (2024) Duccio di Buoninsegna’s Madonna and Child, 1290-1300.Tempera and gold on wood: 9 3/8 x 6 1/2 in.(23.8 x 16.5 cm. Metropolitan Museum of Art #2004.442
Ed Voves, Photo (2024) Goro di Gregorio's sculpture of the Enthroned Virgin.Terracotta: Overall: 17 5/8 x 10 x 9 1/2 in. (44.8 x 25.4 x 24.1 cm) Met Cloisters 1998.214
Ed Voves, Photo (2024) Duccio di Buoninsegna’s The Virgin and Child with Saints Dominic and Aurea. Tempera and gold on panel: Framed: central panel 24 3/16 x 15 3/8 in.(61.5 x 39 cm); left wing 17 11/16 x 7 1/16 in.(45 x 18 cm); right wing 17 11/16 x 8 1/16 in.(45 x 20.5 cm) National Gallery, London.
Ed Voves, Photo (2024) Gallery view of Siena: the Rise of Painting exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Chalice of Peter of Sassoferrato from the
collection of The Met Cloisters Museum appears in the foreground.
Ed
Voves, Photo (2024) Gallery view of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gallery 601. Giotto's Adoration of the Magi appears in the foreground.
Comparitve study of the Nativity scene from Nicola Pisano pulpit for Siena Cathedral and nativity scene from Duccio's Maestà: (from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Pulpito_del_duomo_di_siena_06.JPG) and Ed Voves, Photo (2024)
Duccio di Buonisegna (Italian, 1255-1319) Maesta, 1308-1311. Tempera and gold on wood: 84 x 156 in. (213 x 396 cm.) Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena, Italy https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Duccio_maesta1021.jpg
Ed Voves, Photo (2024) Gallery views of the Siena: the Rise of Painting exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, showing predella paintings from the Maestà:
Duccio di
Buoninsegna, (Italian, active by1278–died 1318 Siena) The Nativity with the
Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel Tempera and gold leaf on single poplar panel Overall,
including original frame, 18 7/8 × 343/16 × 3 1/8 in. (48 × 86.8 × 7.9 cm);
painted surface: center image 16 15/16 x 17 5/16 in.(43 x 43.9 cm), left side
image 16 15/16 x 65/15 in (43 x 16 cm), right side image 16 15/16x 6 5/16 in.
(43 x 16 cm) National Gallery of Art; The Calling of the Apostles Peter and
Andrew. Tempera and gold leaf on panel: painted surface 16 13/16 x 1715/16 (42.7
x 45.5 cm) National Gallery of Art; The Wedding at Cana. Tempera and gold leaf
on panel17 1/8 × 18 5/16 in. (43.5 × 46.5 cm) Museo dell’ Opera del Duomo
Eileen Travell, Photo (2024) Gallery view of Predella Paintings from Duccio's Maesta. © Metropolitan Museum
Ed Voves, Photo (2024) Pietro
Lorenzetti's Pieve Polyptych, 1320. Tempera and gold on panel Overall: 9 ft. 9 11/16 in. × 10 ft. 4
3/16 in. × 39/16 in. (299 × 315.5 × 9 cm) Center panel height: 10 ft. 4 3/16 in.
(315.5cm) Flanking panels height: 94 1/2 in. (240 cm)
Margaret Anne Logan, Photo (2024) Gallery showing Pietro Lorenzetti's Pieve Polyptych, 1320. Photo taken for Art Eyewitness.
Ed Voves, Photo (2024) Ambrogio
Lorenzetti's The Angel Gabriel and the Annunciate
Virgin. Plaster sinopie for frescoes: 94 15/16 × 68 1/4 in. (241.1 × 173.4 cm)95
7/16 × 68 1/16 in. (242.4 × 172.8 cm) San Galgano a Montesiepi