An essential visual overview for students and readers with an interest in Sienese art, history and Renaissance culture.
For two centuries, the city-republic of Siena was home to a brilliant succession of painters who created some of the greatest masterpieces of all time; an imagery unmatched in colouristic intensity and spatial experimentation. This overview, now revised and updated, is an essential introduction to this extraordinary artistic tradition. Taking a broadly chronological approach, it moves from the 14th-century Siena of Duccio, Simone Martini and the Lorenzetti brothers, to the 15th-century city of Sassetta and Giovanni di Paolo.
Perceptive visual analysis of the distinctive styles and conventions of Sienese painting is combined with clear explanations of traditional techniques such as fresco and tempera. The works are also placed in their social and religious context through discussion of Siena's system of government, its civic consciousness, the importance of the Franciscan movement and the cults of local saints.
An accomplished writer as well as a practising artist, Timothy Hyman brings breadth of knowledge and experience to this extensively illustrated book, brilliantly conveying his personal enthusiasm for Sienese art.
By:
Timothy Hyman
Imprint: Thames & Hudson Ltd
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: New Edition
Dimensions:
Height: 210mm,
Width: 150mm,
Weight: 520g
ISBN: 9780500204870
ISBN 10: 050020487X
Series: World of Art
Pages: 248
Publication Date: 20 January 2023
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction: 'An Art Born Amidst City Streets': The Image of the City 1. Duccio and the Religion of the Commune The Expanded Icon Pisans and Parisians The Maesta Narrative and Predella 'From Greek, Back into Latin' 2. Simone Martini: 'The Sweet New Style' In the French High Fashion The Montefiore Chapel and Franciscan Narrative Simone in Siena 1328-33 The Guidoriccio and Barna Controversies With Petrarch in Avignon: 'il mio Simon' 3. Pietro Lorenzetti: Towards a Franciscan Art The Passion Cycle at Assisi 'A Sweetly Passionate Abandonment to Feeling' New Majesties Imagery of the Journey: Dante and Blessed Umilta A New Birth 4. Ambrogio Lorenzetti: The Golden Age Returns In the Service of Ben Comun The Image of a Just Society 'The Space of Vernacular Style' The Winter Wall The Cosmographer 5. After the Black Death (1348-1420) Bartolo and Taddeo: 'Patent Mediocrities'? The Fountain and the Font: Jacopo della Quercia 'Lowliness': Bernardino and the Sienese Saints 6. Second Flowering: Sassetta An Alternative Renaissance Francis, Jester of God An Agglomeration of Glimpses Verticality 7. Giovanni di Paolo: The Chessboard Journey Death and the Dante Illuminations The John the Baptist Cycles The Storyteller 8. The Lost Cause: From the Master of the Osservanza to Francesco di Giorgio Asciano and the Shared Idiom Towards Pienza Francesco di Giorgio and 'Mathematical Humanism' Discarding the 'Humble Style' Epilogue: The Rediscovery
Timothy Hyman is well known both as a writer on art and a painter. He was elected a Royal Academician in 2011 and is an honorary research fellow at University College London. He has exhibited widely and his work is in many public collections, including the British Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Deutsche Bank Collection. He was lead curator of Tate’s major Stanley Spencer retrospective exhibition and has written a pioneering monograph on Bhupen Khakhar. His articles have appeared in the Times Literary Supplement and the London Magazine, and he is the author of Bonnard and Sienese Painting, both published by Thames & Hudson.
Reviews for Sienese Painting
'An unimprovable union of exceptionally acute looking, magical prose and authoritative scholarship ... a wonderfully balanced account of a woefully neglected school' - David Ekserdjian, The Times Literary Supplement 'Required reading for anyone visiting the city' - The Spectator 'A work of enthralled advocacy' - Evening Standard
