Transferring directly from the Metropolitan Museum in New York, where it has been ‘the hottest ticket in town’, Siena: The Rise of Painting 1300-1350 is the first major exhibition of trecento art to be exhibited at the National Gallery in London. Displayed in the ground-floor galleries, the dark grey walls make the literal brilliance of the artworks shine; gold leaf dazzles the eyes in a magnificent show of Siena’s early fourteenth century wealth and piety, demonstrated through this period of artistic innovation.
The dates 1300-1350 are significant. At the turn of the 14th century, Siena was a wealthy city built on the trade routes through Europe, emerging as one of the principle banking centres, whose agents were to be found at trade fairs in Flanders, Champagne and London, as well as being a thoroughfare for pilgrimage routes from Canterbury to Rome. These multifarious travellers increased its wealth, and its exposure to outside influences, which in turn contributed to the productivity of local artists.
For residents, Siena had a stable government willing to visually enrich the city and its cathedral, and where patronage gave artists and artisans the opportunity to use their skills to create works of originality and magnificence to fill these spaces. It became a canvas on which painters, sculptors, goldsmiths and clothmakers, for a short fifty-year period, created innovative works in pictorial design; works that pre-date the classical renaissance in Florence by near 100 years and saw the essence of emerging naturalism in Western art. The time window is distinct, too, for this period of productivity was cut short by the Black Death that swept across Europe from 1346-53, bringing thousands of deaths and a crisis of faith.
Duccio, ‘The Calling of the Apostles Peter and Andrew’, about 1308‒11. (National Gallery of Art, Washington)
The National Gallery exhibition focuses on four major artists all born in Siena – and all dead by 1350. The masterful Duccio Buoninsegna, the young Simone Martini, and the Lorenzetti brothers, Pietro and Ambrogio, collectively dominated Sienese painting in this period. In addition, there are remarkable sepulchral sculptures by Tino di Camaino, and the exquisite work of the painter and master of halos in gold leaf Lippo Memmi, brother-in-law of Martini. To place in context the fabrics seen in the artworks, there are textiles from Greater Iran and central Asia, showing their origins in a city that excelled in trade over 700 years ago.
As for subject matter, the Virgin Mary is intrinsically linked to the city as its protector – the city seal of 1250 is inscribed with the words ‘May the Virgin preserve Siena the ancient, whose loveliness she seals’ – and it sums up what this exhibition explores; the beauty of the city, shown in devotional paintings, sculptures and exquisite metalwork. The most illustrious of Siena’s artists, it was Duccio who created a naturalism within his compositions. His vast 5 x 5 metre double-sided altarpiece – the first in Western painting – is the Maestà (or ‘majesty’). Painted in tempera and gold leaf on wood and featuring a multitude of figures surrounding the Virgin, it was created for the high altar of Siena Cathedral between 1308-11. Such was its significance to the city that it was welcomed by trumpets and kettledrums in a huge procession to the cathedral. Duccio even signed it – an unprecedent ‘first’ for an artist – signifying the rise of the status of the artist in this era. And he signed it on the Virgin’s footstool, thus placing himself in the painting.
Duccio di Buoninsegna ‘Maesta’ (1308–1311)
On show at the National Gallery are eight panels of the back ‘predella’ (the base of the altarpiece) visually recounting the life of Christ as a teacher in the very first narrative scenes in a predella. It is a dazzling display. Dismantled in the 18th century, today the panels are owned by different galleries, making this reassembling a rarity.
Duccio had assistants, likely Simone Martini and the Lorenzetti brothers, to help him create the Maestà. Martini himself came to the forefront on Duccio’s death in 1319, and in turn, the Lorenzetti brothers had their time in the spotlight when Martini moved to the court of Pope Benedict XII in Avignon in 1340. All produced fabulous works – available to see in the exhibition – such as Martini’s St Peter, and the vast Pieve Polyptych by Pietro Lorenzetti. The practice of signing the works was now well established, the latter even signed twice by its creator.
Ambrogio Lorenzetti ‘The Annunciation’ (1344) (housed in the Pinacoteca Nazionale of Siena)
The later The Annunciation, by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, was his artistic highpoint and the last he signed. Square in format, a style copied by Florentine artists a century later, it was commissioned by the tax office in Siena, the Magistrati di Gabella, which gives an idea of who was commissioning work in this period. The painting depicts large-scale figures of the Angel Gabriel and the seated Virgin Mary, who face each other, against a background in a mass of gold leaf. This usually flattens perspective but Ambrogio included a vertical pole at centre, around the base of which he wrapped the edge of the Virgin’s clothing, giving it perspective and realism.
Not to be outshone by the plethora of gold leaf, the sculptures on display are superb examples of the workmanship that Sienese artists were producing. In particular, three works in marble by Tino da Camaino, Angel presenting a Bishop, and Caryatid, both from 1318-21, and the later Man of Sorrows, show his sculptural dexterity to create naturalism in movement and facial expression.
It’s no coincidence that ‘Siena: The Rise of Painting 1300-1350’ has been curated as an exhibition to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the founding of the National Gallery; it features the work of some of the greatest Italian artists of the 14th century, including some of the earliest works in the gallery, that stand as the cornerstone for the next five centuries of evolution in European art.
Siena: The Rise of Painting 1300-1350 is on now until 22nd June 2025 at The National Gallery, London. For more information, including opening times, ticket prices and information about the accompanying book, please visit www.nationalgallery.org.uk.
