Essays In The Study Of Sienese Painting

Excerpt from Essays in the Study of Sienese Painting There was a time when the ardour of mere discovery made me nearly as happy at the sight of a new Sano di Pietro as of a new Piero della Francesca. Yet even then, it did not seem worth while to publish pictures like those of the good Sano and his peers, for, although excellent in their way, and exciting to come across for the first time in some out-of-the-way little hill town, such paintings tend to resemble the standardized products of a mint rather than the spontaneous creations of a changeful human spirit. My intention throughout all my work has been, as a rule, to publish only such pictures as went rather to constitute an artistic personality hitherto un-integrated, or to extend, by showing it in a new phase, a personality already known. And of such a nature are the papers that appear in this volume; only that never before, as in these essays, unless it be in my recent book on "Venetian Painting in America," and in my third series of "Study and Criticism of Italian Art," have I applied with such scrupulousness the test of chronology, and never have I thrown my nets so wide or been so painstaking in gathering up the facts that go towards determining a date. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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Catalog of an exhibition which opened at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on Dec. 20, 1988. This first comprehensive study in English devoted to Sienese painting to be published in four decades centers on the fifteenth century, a fascinating but frequently neglected period when Sienese artists confronted the innovations of Renaissance painting in Florence. Two introductory essays survey fifteenth-century Sienese painting, and individual entries examine 139 key works in exhaustive detail, presenting new insights into long-debated issues of interpretation and attribution, and often utilizing previously unpublished material. Most of the major paintings are reproduced in color and supplemented with illustrations of related comparative works.

The art of Renaissance Siena is usually viewed in the light of developments and accomplishments achieved elsewhere, but Sienese artists were part of a dynamic dialogue that was shaped by their city’s internal political turmoil, diplomatic relationships with its neighbors, internal social hierarchies, and struggle for self-definition. These essays lead scholars in a new and exciting direction in the study of the art of Renaissance Siena, exploring the cultural dynamics of the city and its art in a specifically Sienese context. This volume shapes a new understanding of Sienese culture in the early modern period and defines the questions scholars will continue to ask for years to come. What emerges is a picture of Renaissance Siena as a city focused on meeting the challenges of the time while formulating changes to shape its future. Central to these changes are the city’s efforts to fashion a civic identity through the visual arts.

Three cities compared : urbanism - The design of town halls - Duccio's Maesta - The Arena Chapel - Effigies: human and divine - Design of Siena and Florence Duomos - Paintings of the Sala dei Nove in the Palazzo Pubblico, Siena - Funerary chapels - Marian altarpieces - Artistic schemes in Florence - Women as patrons: nuns, widows and rulers.