Sienese Painting 1
BA2: European Art & Architecture 1250-1400 Sienese Painting I
Siena and the origins of painting before Duccio
Slide 1: Siena Cathedral
Siena Cathedral
Slide 2: Palazzo Pubblico
Slide 3: San Domenico
Slide 4: San Francesco
Chiesa di San Francesco seen seen from Torre del Mangia. Siena, Toscany, Italy
Slide 5: Offering the Keys of the City to the Virgin account book cover of Office of the Gabella, 1482
The tablet originating from the Biccherna (revenue office) depicts the offering of the city keys of Siena to the Virgin Mary in the Cathedral. It shows the Cathedral interior where part of Duccio's Maesta is visible, painted as described in the inventory; above, on the left, the round window designed by Duccio can also be seen.
Slide 6: Madonna degli Occhi Grossi, early thirteenth century, OdD
Compare these two works:
Duccio, Rucellai Madonna,c. 1285.
Giotto,Ognissanti Madonna, c. 1305-10.
Slide 7: Madonna del Voto, Siena Cathedral, C. 1270
Madonna del Voto after 1261
Tempera on panel
Museo dell' Opera del Duomo, Siena
This painting originally was flanked by the four patron saints of Siena. It stood on the high altar of the Cathedral in Siena after the removal of the Madonna of Large Eyes. The name of the artist was probaly Dietisalvi di Speme.
Slide 8: Guido da Siena, PNS no.7, 127- (signed and dated)
Madonna and Child
c. 1270
Tempera on wood, 283 x 194 cm
Palazzo Pubblico, Siena
Slide 9: San Bernardino Madonna, PNS no.16, 1262 (dated) (image not found)
Slide 10: Possible reconstruction of Siena Cathedral altarpiece, 1270s
Duccio di Buoninsegna (c. 1255- 1319) The Maestà
http://www.abcgallery.com/D/duccio/maesta.html
Slide 11: Guido da Siena shop, Annunciation (image not found)
Slide 12: Guido da Siena shop, Christ Mounting the Cross (image not found)
Slide 13: St. Peter dossal, PNS no.15 (image not found)
Slide 14: Crucifixion, mural, crypt of Siena Cathedral (image not found)
Slide 15: Deposition, mural, crypt of Siena Cathedral (image not found)
Duccio di Buoninsegna: before the Maestà
Slide 16: Crevole Madonna, c.1280, OdD
DUCCIO di Buoninsegna (b. ca. 1255, Siena, d. 1319, Siena)
Madonna with Child and Two Angels (Crevole Madonna) 1283-84 Tempera on wood, 89 x 60 cm Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena
The Crevole Madonna and the Madonna of Buonconvento are unanimously considered the earliest works attributable to Duccio. The basic approach of the two paintings is of evident Byzantine tradition: the elegant stylization of the hands, the typical downward curving nose, the red maphórion under Mary's veil, the dark drapery animated by shining gilded lines. New details appear, to a lesser extent in the Buonconvento Madonna and repeated with greater confidence in the Crevole painting, such as the subtle play of light on the Virgin's face, over her chin and cheeks, and a clear attempt at plasticism in the folds of the garment around the face.
The more carefully considered compositon of the Crevole Madonna shows a faint but decided French influence: the elegant forms of the angels in the upper corners, the veiled transparency of the Child's garment, held up by a curious knotted cord, and most of all, the intimate gesture of the Infant Jesus, held in a tender embrace.
Slide 17: Byzantine artist, Kahn Madonna, Washington Museum of Art, c.1280
Slide 18: Guido da Siena, San Domenico Madonna (aka Palazzo Pubblico Madonna)
Slide 19: Castelfiorentino Madonna, Museo di Santa Verdiana, Castelfiorentino (image not found)
Slide 20: Laudesi Madonna (aka Rucellai Madonna), comm. 1285, originally in S. Maria Novella, Florence, now in the Uffizi
Slide 21: Giotto, Ognissanti Madonna, Uffizi
GIOTTO di Bondone (b. 1267, Vespignano, d. 1337, Firenze)
Ognissanti Madonna (Madonna in Maestà) c. 1310 Tempera on wood, 325 x 204 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
The attribution of the large painting of the Madonna from the Florentine church of the Ognissanti (All Saints), now housed in the Uffizi Gallery, derives from a written notice from the early 15th century. The panel, described as the Ognissanti Madonna after the church in which it was originally installed, has the same strength of representation as the frescoes at Padua, and is therefore dated by art historians as having being painted in the first decade of the l4th century.
From the moment we look at the wooden panel painted in tempera we are fascinated by the gleaming solemnity of the paintwork. A fine web of golden edgings on the robes, of halos, and of decorative elements blends the golden hue of the background with the representation as a whole. Both the delicate shades of violet and pink, the warm green and red, and the flesh colours of the figures thus take on a brilliant luster, which allows the panel to shine with incomparable splendour.
Giotto turns to a type of picture known as the Maestà - the Madonna surrounded by saints and angels - which is especially well-known because of the Maestà by Duccio, begun in 1308, the one-time altarpiece of the cathedral at Siena, and through the great fresco in the Sienese Town Hall, completed by Simone Martini in 1315. These two examples of mature Sienese art have a relatively wide format: the numerous saints kneel and stand in rows to the left and right of the Virgin's throne. There they could be said to lead a "life of their own" — some look into the centre of the picture, others look at one another, and yet others direct their gaze out of the picture. Giotto's panel, on the other hand, is vertical in format and thus approaches the size and proportions of an older type of portrayal of the Madonna. This aspect is made particularly clear in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, where the Ognissanti Madonna is exhibited next to Duccio's Rucellai Madonna and the Madonna S. Trinità by Cimabue, both of which were executed in the 1280s.
This representation of the Maesta, with its novel conception of the subject and its delicate style of painting, worked through with gold, numbers among the high points in Giotto's panel painting. Here, the natural portrayal and the solemnity of the mother and child are intensified in a special way. The clear perspectival composition, in which the clearly directed gaze of the surrounding figures is included, makes the Child's gesture of benediction appear as the focal point, both optically and as regards content. Restored in 1991
Slide 22: Madonna of the Franciscans, PNS no.20
Madonna of the Franciscans
c. 1300
Tempera on wood, 23,5 x 16 cm
Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena
Slide 23: London triptych, National Gallery London
Duccio di Buoninsegna. Triptych (The Holy Virgin and the Christ Child with St. Dominic and St. Aurea). c. 1300. Tempera on panel. The National Gallery, London, UK
Slide 24: Virgin and Child with Saints, PNS no.28, presumed to be from S. Domenico, Siena (image not found)
The Maestà (1308-11)
For a complete set of pictures see Olga's Gallery The Maestà
Slide 25: The Maestà (1308-11)
Slide 26: Front main panel: Virgin & Child in Majesty with saints and angels (image not found)
Slide 27: Front predella: Infancy of Christ cycle (image not found)
Slide 28: Front gables: Last Days of the Virgin cycle (image not found)
Slide 29: Back predella: Ministry of Christ cycle (image not found)
Slide 30: Back main panel: Passion cycle
Duccio di Buoninsegna. Maestà (back, central panel, detail of): The Seizing of Jesus. 1308-11. Tempera on wood panel. Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena, Italy.
Slide 31: Back gables: Resurrection cycle
Duccio di Buoninsegna. Maestà (back, central panel): Noli me tangere. 1308-11. Tempera on wood panel. Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena, Italy
Slide 32: Back panel:Entry into Jerusalem
Comparatives:
Slide 33: Giotto, Entry into Jerusalem, Arena Chapel, Padua, c. 1302-05
Slide 34: Guido of Siena, Entry into Jerusalem, linen hanging, PNS no.8
Slide 35: Giotto, Marriage at Cana, Arena Chapel, Padua
Slide 36: Ambrogio Lorenzetti(?) City by the Sea, PNS no.70 (image not found)
KEY: OdD = Museo deIl'Opera del Duomo di Siena
PNS = Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena
Dr. Janet Robson, 20 January 2005