By Theresa Thompson, Timeless Travels' Art Correspondent
Duccio, Maestà - Panels, 1308-11 - The Annunciation , Egg tempera on wood, © The National Gallery, London, one of the out-and-out highlights of the show
Sienese art, long overshadowed by that of Florence, its illustrious neighbour to the north, finally gets it place in the limelight this spring with the arrival of an exquisite exhibition at The National Gallery.
Siena: The Rise of Painting 1300‒1350 covers the art of the first half of the 14th century when this bustling hill-top Tuscan city witnessed an explosion of creativity and innovation that proved a turning point in European art. Trecento masterpieces glow in gallery after gallery in this dazzling show. Paintings by the four key Sienese artists dominate - Duccio di Buoninsegna, Simone Martini, and the Lorenzetti brothers, Pietro and Ambrogio – have been brought together with elaborate works of art in a variety of media (metal-and-enamel, marble, ivories, rugs, silks, illuminated manuscripts) to explore “the evolution of an art that was distinctively local, but at the same time unquestionably international.”
The exhibition is, in a sense, an ambitious evocation of Siena’s golden age, a period that saw radical experimentation by painters in conceiving new types of objects, such as large multi-tiered altarpieces and personal devotional works, and a fundamental shift in narrative art towards a naturalism that predates the Renaissance by up to a century. All of which made the artworks more accessible to people. And it made personalities of some of the artists; a few even signed their work, the first to do so.
Sienese goldsmith, Container for an Agnus Dei, about 1320-30, Silver with translucent and champlevé enamel, 4.2 × 4.2 cm, Musée de Cluny, Paris (Cl. 11460) ,© RMN-Grand Palais (musée de Cluny - musée national du Moyen Âge) / Michel Urtado
Organised with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where the exhibition was first shown, in London there are over 100 beautiful masterworks on display. This includes many panel paintings that were once part of altarpieces - polyptychs broken up at some point in their histories into smaller panel paintings illustrating individual scenes from the Bible. Happily, in the exhibition you can get right up close to these, to enjoy every astonishing detail.
I was in Heaven. No need for the celestial blue skies of later works (the figures here are mainly on gold ground); no need for the angels; nor the stories told; the jewel-like vibrancy of the colours of these early Sienese paintings, the sensitivity of the observations of human moods, gestures and postures, the sheer majesty of the works did it for me.
Let’s start with Duccio (active by 1278–died 1318 in Siena), who unquestionably is the star artist of the show - and who opens the show with two small graceful works: a Virgin and Child, and The Virgin and Child Enthroned, both painted between 1290-1300, and both emphasising the emotional attachment of mother and son. Duccio’s pioneering depictions of familiar human gestures and expressions - the baby pulling at his mother’s veil, toes curling as he climbs on her - that is, he moves, as babies do – make the works far more relatable to its intended viewers. It’s a far cry from the static depictions of mother and child in most mediaeval paintings; for comparison, a couple of earlier Italo-Byzantine icons are hung nearby.
Duccio, The Virgin and Child enthroned with Angels, about 1290-5, Tempera on poplar, Kunstmuseum Bern (873), Legacy of Adolf von Stürler, Versailles, 1902 (G 0873), © Kunstmuseum Bern
Of the Duccio artworks here (15, amazingly, given that so few survive), the out-and-out highlight is the line of eight predella panels from his spectacular Maestà altarpiece (Maestà is Italian for majesty), specially reunited for the show. The monumental double-sided altarpiece known as the Maestà, painted by Duccio for Siena’s cathedral, when completed in 1311 was paraded around the city streets in celebration before being installed above the high altar in the Duomo. There, it became the focus of Siena’s devotion to the Virgin Mary, who was considered the protector of the city (it was held that she had intervened to save Siena at the Battle of Montaperti in 1260, when the smaller Sienese forces defeated their long-term enemy, the Republic of Florence).
The Maestà, the first double-sided altarpiece known to have been made and one of the largest and most complex, was dismantled in the late 18th century and many of the panels scattered around the world. The panels on display (all from the back of the altarpiece) include Christ and the Woman of Samaria (on loan from Madrid), The Calling of the Apostles Peter and Andrew (on loan from Washington), and The Annunciation (from The National Gallery’s collection). All were painted between 1308-11 in tempera and gold leaf on panel.
Lighting is key in this type of exhibition. And the National Gallery has got it just right. Entering each dark-walled gallery space feels to some extent like entering a chapel, as there in front of you, brilliantly lit, is an object to steal the eyes, to play with emotions, to wonder at.
Pausing before another gilded Duccio masterpiece, a beautiful triptych made around 1312 for a Cardinal’s private devotions, co-curator of the exhibition Imogen Tedbury, the National Gallery’s Curator of Italian Paintings before 1500, invites us to imagine the experience of opening one of these portable works. “They would have travelled packed shut. We know that the right wing opened first – you can tell from the hinges – and the first thing you’d see [in The Virgin and Child] is the Christ Child.” The infant is clutching at his mother’s veil as if trying to reveal her face more fully, while she is gently touching his knee. “It is an emotional experience, seeing the tenderness between the mother and child, and seeing in her face her sorrow at knowing what lies ahead for him,” she adds. Candles may have been lit in front of the triptych, causing the gold to glisten and shine, enhancing the spiritual experience.
Duccio’s pupil Simone Martini (around 1284-1344) shared Duccio’s sensitivity. In turn he became Siena’s star painter, and the principal recipient of civic commissions. One of his major works, the six panel Orsini polyptych, a folding work of art made between 1326-1334 for private devotion, was likewise divided up and scattered through Europe; it also has been reunited for the exhibition.
In a three decade-long career Martini became something of a celebrity painter. Even a kind of cultural ambassador to the cities and courts of Europe, ultimately at the papal court in Avignon in France. According to the exhibition curators, his work helped influence much of later French painting – and possibly too the Wilton Diptych, back on show at the National Gallery after touring as part of the National Gallery 200th anniversary celebrations last year. Pleasingly, there are 15 or so examples of Martini’s lovely paintings on display, including the six panels made for Siena’s government headquarters, the Palazzo Pubblico.
Simone Martini, Christ Discovered in the Temple, 1342, Tempera on panel, National Museums Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery (2787), Presented by the Liverpool Royal Institution 1948, © National Museums Liverpool
Before moving to the Lorenzetti bothers, I want to draw attention to a wonderfully relatable picture by Simone Martini of Christ Discovered in the Temple, painted in 1342, in which a gloriously truculent youth (Christ) with arms tightly folded, is brought home by his father to face up to his mother’s worries. You can just hear him cry out, “What’s the problem? I was only at the Temple!” You don’t expect comedy from these pictures, but what a delight!
The two Lorenzetti brothers, Pietro (active possibly 1306; died probably 1348), and the younger Ambrogio (active 1319; died 1348/9), properly came into their own once Martini had left Siena, thereafter mostly gaining all the commissions. Stylistic differences exist between the brothers, but from the 17 or so works exhibited, it is clear that their work is often daringly innovative and emotionally powerful.
To take just two examples, one from each brother: look out for Pietro’s triptych The Birth of the Virgin, painted in 1335, in which he side-steps the usual portrayals to have the mother, Saint Anne lying, recuperating on her side on a couch, watching her attendants bathe her newborn infant (note the delicate detail of the water pouring into the basin). Daringly, the background of his painting is no longer flat gold, but instead Lorenzetti innovates, painting an everyday environment, adding in architectural elements that sets his scene within a modest medieval household. All is normal, all is very relatable to the 14th century inhabitants of the city of Siena.
Meanwhile, Ambrogio’s elegant painting of the Madonna del Latte, 1320-25, characterises the dynamic interplay of tender nursing mother and baby, the infant greedily sucking and kicking but at the same time checking on us. It also characterises what the curators hope this exhibition conveys, that progressiveness and naturalism is at the heart of 14th century Sienese art, and that early Sienese artists played a central role in the story of European art.
Siena’s golden half century came to an abrupt end in the late 1340s with the arrival of the Black Death that ravaged Europe. By the time the plague finally left the city, it had lost between a third and half of its population, and the once thriving metropolis and artistic hub lost out to its neighbour, Florence culturally and economically.
Siena: The Rise of Painting 1300‒1350 marks the 200th anniversary of the National Gallery and celebrates the earliest pictures in its collection.
Sienna: The Rise of Paintings 1300-1350
The National Gallery, London
Showing until: 22 June 2025
For more information see: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/
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