See the Breathtaking 14th-Century Sienese Artworks That Helped Set the Italian Renaissance in Motion

A new exhibition at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is brimming with opulent religious panel paintings, altarpieces, sculptures, textiles and metalworks from the Italian city of Siena.

Titled “Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350,” the show features more than 100 artworks made just before the Italian Renaissance flourished. It’s the first major exhibition in the United States dedicated solely to early Sienese artworks.

“This monumental exhibition will bring together the most important group of early Sienese paintings ever assembled outside of Siena—offering a once-in-a-lifetime chance to explore the influence of this extraordinary artistic center,” says Max Hollein, the Met’s director, in a statement.

While many look to Florence as the creative pulse of early Renaissance art, the new exhibition makes a strong argument for Siena’s integral role. It’s focused primarily on the renowned Sienese artist Duccio di Buoninsegna and three younger painters: Simone Martini and the brothers Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti.

Between 1308 and 1311, Duccio and his workshop created the Maestà (or Majesty), an impressive 16- by 15-foot artwork made for the high altar of Siena’s cathedral. Many years later, it was divided into pieces and spread throughout the world. The new exhibition brings together eight of the nine rear panels for the first time in centuries.

“Stylistically melding Byzantine bling with Renaissance naturalism, and depicting, like film stills from a biblical biopic, episodes from the life of Jesus, the panels exemplify a tradition of vivid narrative painting that became a Sienese specialty,” writes art critic Holland Cotter for the New York Times.

Art historians think Duccio may have trained some of the three younger painters on display. The exhibition focuses on these artists’ varying approaches to narrative, featuring both “monumental works and detailed, smaller-scale narrative scenes,” per the museum.

The works by the Sienese artists may not be as technically advanced as the Renaissance paintings that came later, but examining them side by side is instructive: In a review, Artnet’s Ben Davis calls the Sienese pieces “the crude broth out of which the pure flavors of the High Renaissance were reduced.”

“In paintings, multiple incidents and time periods coexist on one plane,” he writes. “Halos float in a nether realm between realistic illusion and flat gold geometry. Anatomy is approximate, not scientific. You can see why the various forms of optical perspective that arrived on the scene a century later would look so clarifyingly bold.”

The show ends in 1350, around the time that the Black Death was raging through Siena. The plague ultimately wiped out about half of the city’s population and devastated its art scene. Duccio had died years earlier, and Martini died just before the disease hit; both of the Lorenzetti brothers perished in the plague.

The new exhibition focuses on the brief stretch of time before the Black Death took hold. It highlights not only the beauty in these rare religious paintings, but also their importance in the canon of art history.

“Sienese painting represents a rupture in world art, breaking from Gothic flatness and hieratic Byzantine art,” writes art critic Jerry Saltz for Vulture. “In Siena, a new richness of detail appears, space takes on character, figures fill out, paint becomes fleshy, and color, especially an array of blues, is set free. This explosion of innovation led to Flemish, Dutch and northern painting.”

However, even “amid so much revolutionary change,” he adds, “what one feels in the presence of Sienese painting is something restorative and healing.”

“Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350” is on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through January 26, 2025.

Julia Binswanger | READ MORE

Julia Binswanger is a freelance arts and culture reporter based in Chicago. Her work has been featured in WBEZ, Chicago magazine, Rebellious magazine and PC magazine.