The National Gallery’s major winter exhibition, featuring works from 1300-1350 Siena, glimmers with hammered gold leaf. Medieval representations of the Saviour and his Mother shimmer with shining gilded glow, prioritizing divine portrayal over everyday realism. The show focuses on a late medieval proto-Renaissance in Siena, centered on Duccio di Buoninsegna, the greatest of all Sienese painters.
Duccio and his contemporaries were pivotal in establishing painting as the dominant form in Western art. The exhibition’s crowning achievement is the reassembly of several great Sienese triptychs and altarpieces that had been dispersed across the globe. The monumental “Maestà” (1308) from Siena Cathedral stands out, with eight borrowed panels showcasing human interest scenes from the life of Christ.
Siena’s golden glow in focus
Comparing Duccio’s tiny, refined works with Giotto’s life-size frescoes, the Sienese painter’s rarefied talent becomes apparent. Simone Martini’s larger portraits of saints, especially the Virgin, capture attention with their intense, beady-eyed stares.
Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s “Stories from the Life of St Nicholas” (1332) marks a turning point in the exhibit. Here, gold is largely relegated to the margins, resulting in a freer narrative space and a modern feeling for architecture. However, an extraordinary later work, Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s “Annunciation” (1344), showcases a return to gold, used with extraordinary craftsmanship.
This remarkable exhibition’s strength lies in opening unexpected vistas through late medieval art. It reassures visitors that even then, much was happening outside the mainstream.