Renaissance Siena: Art for a City - Hardcover

Syson, Luke; Angelini, Alessandro; Jackson, Philippa; Nevola, Fabrizio; Plazzotta, Carol

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1857093925 ISBN 13: 9781857093926

Publisher: National Gallery London, 2008

Synopsis

A beautifully illustrated and unprecedented examination of art from Renaissance Siena

Siena flourished as a major artistic center during the Italian Renaissance, fuelled by the patronage of powerful and wealthy families, and the results were remarkable for their virtuoso beauty and strong sense of civic identity. This is the first major book in English to showcase a breathtaking and diverse range of masterpieces and discuss in depth how art was shaped and sustained to provide a unique artistic language for Siena––prior to the city’s possession in 1557 by Cosimo de Medici of Florence, its cultural and political rival. Renaissance Siena presents paintings, drawings, and sculptures by Francesco di Giorgio and Domenico Beccafumi, two of the greatest Sienese artists of the period, along with Matteo di Giovanni, Benvenuto di Giovanni, and visiting artists such as Luca Signorelli and Pintoricchio. These artists combined exquisite color, decoration, sinuous line, and delicate beauty with ambitious compositions and figurative styles to establish one of the most distinctive and elegant schools of Italian art. With a chronology and artists’ biographies, this comprehensive book features essays by leading scholars that discuss all aspects of Sienese art––including issues of patronage, the role of politics and foreign artists in influencing style and production, and public versus private spaces.

About this title

About the Author:

Luke Syson is Curator of Italian Paintings 1460–1500 and author of Pisanello (Yale). Alessandro Angelini is Associate Professor of Modern Art at the University of Siena. Philippa Jackson is an independent historian. Fabrizio Nevola teaches at the University of Siena and is author of the forthcoming Siena: Constructing the Renaissance City (see previous page).

Review:

"For those less familiar with Sienese art, the essays are extremely valuable, as is the collection of artists' biographies towards the end...[Renaissance Siena] has given us yet another way to look at Sienese art of the fifteenth century and introduced new works into that discussion."—Hayden B.J. Maginnis, Sixteenth Century Journal (Hayden B.J. Maginnis Sixteenth Century Journal)

About this edition

• Publisher: National Gallery London
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1857093925
• ISBN 13: 9781857093926
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 372