In the first half of the fourteenth century, the vibrant central Italian city-state of Siena was the catalyst for an explosion of artistic activity and innovation in which the artists Duccio, Simone Martini, and the brothers Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti played pivotal roles in redefining painting at the dawn of the Renaissance. Starting with Duccio, these artists invested religious imagery with human feeling, naturalism, telling details, movement in space, vivid storytelling, and rich jewel-like colors on shimmering gilded wood panels in an art of dazzling refinement. They developed new narrative altarpieces, introduced the depiction of landscape and cityscape into both religious and secular art, and pioneered a tradition of representing scenes from Roman history as examples of civic virtue in Sienese art. The phenomenal achievements of Duccio, Simone Martini, and Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti, no less than those of their Florentine contemporaries, contributed to the development of Renaissance painting.
Inspired by the exquisite exhibition of Late Medieval Sienese Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art last fall and reflecting on my experiences many years ago working on a justice hall with frescoes by two followers of Ambrogio Lorenzetti, I am excited to explore with you through slides, lecture, and discussion this magical moment in the history of European art.
Instructor Lucie Bauer is a retired art historian whose academic specialty is Italian Renaissance Art. She has taught in a wide variety of settings from Dartmouth College to the Maine State Prison. Lucie was educated at Vassar and the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. As a young scholar she had fellowships to I Tatti, Harvard’s Center for Renaissance Studies in Settignano, Italy and to the Warburg Institute at the University of London for research on the use of scenes from Roman history as examples of civic virtue in Late Medieval and Renaissance political painting in Siena and its territory. A former member of the CSC board and curriculum committee, she has taught many senior college courses.