Review: ‘Siena: The Rise of Painting’ at Metropolitan Museum

On Saturday I wrote about Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300–1350, the Met’s lovely, inspiriting new exhibition. It’s an erudite show, too, in the finest Met tradition, so I’m doing a two-parter. Last week I wrote about the core artists — Duccio, brothers Ambrogio and Pietro Lorenzetti, and Simone Martini, not household names — and how the curators develop core themes in Sienese art. Rich color and storytelling finesse abound. That otherworldly Gothic look endures, not because the locals were clingers. Rather, the Sienese modernized Gothic style, though they stuck with much of its abstract, spiritual look. The Black Death in the late 1340s killed half of Siena’s population, whacked its economy, and froze it in its late-medieval state.

Today, I’ll write more about Sienese style as well as the show’s exquisite ivories, marble sculpture, and works in gold. The small altarpieces and parts of altarpieces by Ambrogio and Simone are divine. And what couldn’t travel to New York? Plenty. Better pack your bags for a Siena visit.

On Saturday I wrote about Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300–1350, the Met’s lovely, inspiriting new exhibition. It’s an erudite show, too, in the finest Met tradition, so I’m doing a two-parter. Last week I wrote about the core artists — Duccio, brothers Ambrogio and Pietro Lorenzetti, and Simone Martini, not household names — and how the curators develop core themes in Sienese art. Rich color and storytelling finesse abound. That otherworldly Gothic look endures, not because the locals were clingers. Rather, the Sienese modernized Gothic style, though they stuck with much of its abstract, spiritual look. The Black Death in the late 1340s killed half of Siena’s population, whacked its economy, and froze it in its late-medieval state.

Today, I’ll write more about Sienese style as well as the show’s exquisite ivories, marble sculpture, and works in gold. The small altarpieces and parts of altarpieces by Ambrogio and Simone are divine. And what couldn’t travel to New York? Plenty. Better pack your bags for a Siena visit.