The room is shrouded in darkness, except for the gold encrusted frames and figurines delicately placed throughout. People politely jostle and quietly murmur to one another as they take in the variety of artwork that all seems to glow from within. Divine intervention or excellent positioning? We may never know. But that is the magic of ‘Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350,’ the MET museum’s latest blockbuster exhibition on Sienese art and arguably the show of the year, on view through Sunday, January 26th, 2025. You feel as much as you see the profound energy and immensity of each work of art.
The exhibition is one of a kind, for Italian religious art of this magnitude has not been featured at a major museum in many years. While once a staple, curators have long grappled with the same conundrum. In an increasingly secular world, how do museums direct and maintain attention on devotional art that many people don’t relate with?
Stephen Wolohojian and other ‘Siena’ curators offer an answer – by framing the exhibit as a historical marvel, a precious window into life 700 years ago. Surrounded by pristinely preserved frescos, statues, swords, and goblets, the viewer is transported right back in time to one of the great capitals of Italy, a few decades short of the bubonic plague and the Renaissance that would soon transform Europe. This change in perspective turns the exhibit from unrepresentative to utterly awe inspiring.
The exhibition largely follows the story of four Sienese artists, working in parallel to other artists in Florence at the outset of the 14th century, though their art is intermixed and divided into twelve sections.
The first, and arguably the most famous, is Duccio di Buoninsegna, whose art career was kickstarted by a series of important commissions from both civic and religious patrons of Siena.
Duccio is best known for painting the sprawling Maestà (Majesty), an immense altarpiece of individual panels forming a tier structure that was later installed to Siena’s ornate central cathedral. It is a magnificent representation of the Virgin Mary at the peak of her glory, flanked by rows of saints and complex narratives that recount both her life, and that of her son Jesus.
The Maestà is no longer intact, dismantled over the years due to changing tastes and modernization. While many of the panels remained in the hands of Sienese public institutions, some were sold into private collections. Yet thanks to concentrated efforts on behalf of both the MET Museum and the National Gallery in London, most of the pieces were reconstructed into the exhibition. These are placed side by side along an encased glass wall, allowing viewers to take the panels in as a whole while absorbing each one individually in turn.
The extraordinary vibrancy of each piece is guaranteed to take one’s breath away. Rich reds and blues against a blazing gold background create a startling contrast, as potent as if they were made seven years ago rather than seven hundred. They are the shining emblems of the narrative painting that define Sienese art. While such art is often characterized as simplistic, a more thorough examination tells a different story. Up close and personal, each minute detail is in focus, from the millions of tiny shadings that make up Jesus’ ornate coat in the seventh panel, to the diamond quilted pattern in the fourth.
Duccio’s other best-known piece, Madonna and Child (known as the Stoclet Madonna), was already in possession of the MET – in fact, they paid a hefty 45 million for the tiny 11 by 8 inch painting – and it greets viewers in the introductory room as a taste of the greatness to come.
Flanked by other representations of the Virgin and Child, including a Byzantine icon and a French ivory carving, the gold jewel has a monumentality that transcends its small size. Unlike these other interpretations, which can often appear flat and emotionless, Duccio injects his with a masterful dynamic of emotions, contrasting the melancholy serenity of the Virgin with the childlike playfulness of Christ as he plays with the fabric of her rich blue veil. A parapet runs alongside the bottom of the painting, serving as a threshold between the world of the beholder and the Madonna and Child, caught in a place far beyond mortal existence.
Duccio was the oldest of the four artists, and the exhibition mirrors that with a metaphorical passing of the torch. While his pieces dominate the initial rooms, the other artists in his sphere, Simone Martini and brothers Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti, are featured prominently as the viewer delves further inside. This paints a contrast between the standard that Duccio set and the interpretations of the other artists as they worked to establish their own distinctions within his sphere of influence.
One example is the interpretation of Christ in both Duccio’s Stoclet Madonna, which opens the exhibition, and Simone Martini’s ‘Christ Discovered in the Temple,’ which closes it. Martini’s painting was made about half a century later, and features a teenage Christ, standing between his serenely seated mother and visibly irate father. While the rich colors and gold detailing bear a striking resemblance to Duccio’s painting, Martini’s Christ appears plenty more petulant than reverent, with a cross-armed pose that appears deeply human.
Simone Martini’s style is where the viewer feels the shift from the purely Sienese interpretation to a more eclectic and cosmopolitan fusion. Martini was born in Siena, though he frequently moved around Italy and broader Europe, going to Naples, Assisi, and Avignon. In these locations he picked up elements from other genres that he integrated seamlessly into his own works. His travels brought with them an assimilation of Gothic elegance and French decorative styles. Martini’s nuanced storytellings elevate the final rooms of the exhibition, leading to an unexpected crescendo that leaves the viewer contemplating not only religious devotion but the shared human experiences of joy, defiance, and divine contemplation.
Following Martini, the works of Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti take center stage, showcasing the wide-breadth of expression encapsulated in Sienese narrative art. While Duccio established the technical foundation and Martini imbued his pieces with a distinct emotional storytelling, the Lorenzetti brothers’ mark their works with a distinct risk-taking element.
Pietros ‘Pieve Altarpiece’ is the prime example, an ambitious 9 by 10 foot polyptych that stands tall in the center of the exhibition. It consists of 5 tiered towers, the central one displaying a depiction of the Virgin and Child, flanked by several other saints and apostles that appear caught in shared conversation. Interestingly, it is not double sided, allowing the viewer to see the delicate construction that went into such an altarpiece – a compilation of wooden boards and small spikes that enable it to remain upright.
Ultimately, ‘Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350’ is a tale through time, a snapshot into an era defined by divinity, power, and the promise of rebirth. It succeeds in transforming devotional art into a window as well as a mirror, allowing viewers to bridge the human experience of the past with the human experience of the present. By reframing these 700-year-old works, they become blazing emblems of art’s timeless capacity to transcend, inspire, and unite.
Ultimately, ‘Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350’ is a tale through time, a snapshot into an era defined by divinity, power, and the promise of rebirth. It succeeds in transforming devotional art into a window as well as a mirror, allowing viewers to bridge the human experience of the past with the human experience of the present.