By James Brewer
Some of the most glorious, God-fearing artwork early in the 14th century came from a man who was supposedly so disdainful of the authorities that later commentators pronounced him to be the archetypal bohemian artist. His unruly behaviour and failure to pay his taxes can be forgiven in the light of his brilliant contribution to the evolution of latter-day Western painting – and that contribution was bringing the human touch to his masterpieces.
Duccio (full name Duccio di Buoninsegna, known to be active from 1278, died in 1319) is treated now with the utmost reverence as the leading painter of his generation in the Tuscan city of Siena. His creations are among more than 100 exquisite artworks of his time on show at London’s National Gallery in a richly endowed celebration of the period. He was a contemporary of Dante whose Divine Comedy visualises Hell, Purgatory and Paradise in vivid verbal imagery.
Siena has tended to be obscured in art history by the commercial and cultural dominance of Florence and the visual techniques it fostered, although in certain respects it was more than a century ahead of the flourishing of such luminaries as Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael.
In Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350 the National Gallery takes us back to the city’s golden age, when masterpieces were indeed inscribed on fields of gold. Sienese painters’ attachment to gold, a symbol of purity, dazzles throughout this grand exhibition.
The advance of art in Siena was not simply a matter of the right geniuses appearing at the right time. By 1300 the city had built up much economic clout, in large measure thanks to being a staging post on the Via Francigena, the 2,000 km pilgrimage and trade route from Canterbury to Rome and on to ports of embarkation for the Holy Land. The drawback for Siena was its lack of access to the sea, which it sought to overcome in 1303 by buying the harbour of Talamone in a protected natural bay, but the investment failed because it would have needed costly dredging, and the inlet was plagued by malaria. Dante, in his second circle of Purgatory, ridiculed the port project as a waste of money.
Siena nevertheless benefited from imports of textiles and other goods originating in faraway lands – from Greater Iran via Genoa and Venice, silks from Mongol territories and carpets from Turkey. The silks were obtained from nearby Lucca as Siena did not have its own silk-weaving industry. Other fabrics reached Siena though the port of Pisa. Built like Rome on seven hills, Siena cultivated an unmistakable architectural profile –– including the imposing Piazza del Campo and Palazzo Pubblico.
On June 9, 1311, to the sound of trumpets and kettledrums, a monumental painting of the Virgin Mary was paraded through the city to its 13th century Romanesque and Gothic cathedral. The Maestà (Majesty), an altarpiece commissioned from Duccio, honoured the Virgin Mary as Queen of Heaven, patron saint and protector of Siena, attended by the Apostles, saints and angels. It was about five metres high and five metres wide, fully painted and gilded on both sides. On the front, the Virgin is seated at the centre of a heavenly court, while the back shows scenes from the life of Christ.
The awe-inspiring altarpiece would appear to the masses to be “glowing like a giant colourful picture book, accessible to everyone at a time when few could read or write,” says a National Gallery commentary.
By virtue of collaboration with other museums, we can gather an impression of the excitement generated by the tableau, because it was dismantled in the 18th century. Brought together are several surviving panels of tempera on gold leaf, such as Christ and the Woman of Samaria from the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, and The Calling of the Apostles Peter and Andrew on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, from the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.
Duccio’s Maestà is one of the touchstones of Western painting, say the curators. The altarpiece is his only signed work, but hallmarks elsewhere trace his extraordinary talent. He had an extensive workshop, like an academy, where it is presumed that others helped with the magnificent Maestà. These probably included the maestros Simone Martini, Pietro Lorenzetti and possibly his brother Ambroggio, among others. The brothers show supreme assurance and technical skill. Pietro is listed as being active possibly from 1306, and he is thought to have died probably in 1348; and Ambrogio who worked from 1319, died in 1348/9.
Painters, sculptors and artisans took on commissions for patrons in Florence, the Angevin kings of Naples and the papal court in Avignon, developing an international style and art historical themes that were admired across Europe.
European royalty, aristocracy and princes of the church amassed precious works of art to accompany and enhance their religious observances. Illuminated manuscripts, goldsmiths’ work and ivories, especially those fashioned in Paris, were highly valued.
Sienese painters, notably Duccio, and in the next generation, Simone Martini, emulated the elegance of Gothic art, and were familiar with Byzantine icons.
Another reunion is panels for the Orsini Polyptych by Martini (1284‒1344). Made for the Palazzo Pubblico altarpiece, this is a folding work made for private devotion, probably for Cardinal Napoleone Orsini, who was of one of the most influential princely families of medieval and Renaissance Italy. Today it is divided between the Louvre, Paris, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, and the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. In one we see the deeply-felt astonishment of the enthroned Virgin Mary who has just been told that she will become pregnant.
From Martini’s circle in about 1340 is The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine. In tempera on panel, it is of impressive size. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which has loaned the picture, says that the legendary Saint Catherine of Alexandria had a vision in which Christ took her as his spiritual bride, placing a ring on her finger. Within the mighty work, two somewhat startling images appended show saints Margaret and Michael subduing demons evoke the triumph of good over evil.
Enhancing their narratives, painters invariably dressed their holy figures in silk and cloth of gold. Only the highest churchmen, rulers and wealthiest individuals were allowed to wear such fine fabrics. Paradoxically, the city had on religious grounds enacted sumptuary laws to limit extravagant spending on clothing and food.
Although their clients were wealthy, artists could not afford the kind of opulent textiles they depicted and would not even have kept sample books, so they mimicked the textures and intricate geometric patterns of the fabrics.
To create a texture like woven threads that would shimmer in candlelight, artists used the technique of sgraffito, scratching away surface paint to reveal gold leaf underneath. Only fragments of these once-vibrant textiles remain, and some are on display in the exhibition.
Much artistic work from the time has been lost, but enough survives to highlight the advances of the day. We see the beginnings of naturalistic portraiture. Holy figures are humanised through their expressions and gestures, rendered in a realistic and vital way and grouped in crowds, (as in Duccio’s Triptych with the Crucifixion; Saint Nicholas, Saint Clement and the Redeemer with Angel and Martini’s The Way to Calvary), a break with the conventionalised postures and visages of earlier medieval art.
In addition to paintings by the four key artists, metalwork, enamel, gilded glass, wood, marble, illuminated manuscripts and a selection of works from other countries and cultures are introduced throughout the exhibition.
A group of four sculptures more than 70cm tall, displayed in formation and brightly lit, is eye-catching. Old Saint, Saint John the Baptist, Saint Peter with a Book, and Young Saint, from about 1315-18, are in marble with traces of several colours of paint.
The Black Death descended on Siena in 1348, killing perhaps as much as half of the city’s population, devastating its economy and culture, and eventually leading to a coup by a coalition of nobles and guildsmen.
Curatorial expertise for the exhibition abounds, led by Caroline Campbell, director of the National Gallery of Ireland; Stephan Wolohojian, John Pope-Hennessy curator in charge of European Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Laura Llewellyn, curator of Italian Paintings before 1500 at the National Gallery, London; Imogen Tedbury, curator of Italian Paintings before 1500 (maternity cover) at the National Gallery, London; in collaboration with Professor Joanna Cannon of the Courtauld Institute of Art, London.
Before its transfer to the National Gallery, the exhibition was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Image captions in detail:
The Calling of the Apostles Peter and Andrew, about 1308-11 Tempera on poplar. Maestà panel. By Duccio. National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, Samuel H Kress Collection.
Triptych with the Crucifixion and Other Scenes, about 1302–8. Tempera on panel. By Duccio. Lent by His Majesty the King.
The Way to Calvary, about 1326-34. Tempera on poplar. By Simone Martini. Musée du Louvre, Département des Peintures, Paris. © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée du Louvre)/ Gérard Blot.
Triptych with the Crucifixion, Saint Nicholas, Saint Clement and the Redeemer with Angels, 1311-18. Tempera on panel. By Duccio. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Grant Walker and Charles Potter Kling Funds © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts.
Textile fragment with quadrupeds and birds, late 13th–early 14th century. Silk, with brocading weft of silk and pattern weft of wrapped gold thread; tabby (plain) and lampas (double) weave. Lucca, Italy. Lent by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1931 © Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Old Saint, Saint John the Baptist, and Saint Peter with a Book, about 1315-18. Sculpture. By Gano di Faxio. Marble with traces of polychrome Museo di San Pietro all’Orto, from the Cattedrale di San Cerbone in Massa Marittima. Young Saint with a Book, Museo di San Pietro all’Orto, from the Cattedrale di San Cerbone.
Saint Margaret subdues a demon. Detail from The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine, about 1340. Circle of Simone Martini. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350 is at the National Gallery, London, until June 22, 2025.
