The Met's Sienese Art Blockbuster Exhibition Review

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's latest exhibition, "Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300–1350," is a blockbuster show that has the potential to reorder the Western canon. The exhibition features a diverse range of artworks from 13th-century Sienese artists, including Duccio, Simone Martini, Pietro Lorenzetti, and Ambrogio Lorenzetti.

The Exhibition's Highlights

The exhibition's greatest achievement is reassembling all eight of the remaining panels of the predella from Duccio's Maestà (1308–11). Each painting offers its own thrills, but one of the most notable is The Transfiguration, in which Jesus Christ stands stoically on a craggy peak, his disciples looking on with a mixture of surprise and horror.

The Artists' Use of Gold Leaf

The exhibition showcases the artists' use of gold leaf, which was a common technique in Byzantine art. However, the Sienese artists used gold leaf in a more innovative way, often eschewing backgrounds altogether in favor of fields of glowing metal.

The Influence of Local and Foreign Artistic Traditions

The exhibition also highlights the influence of local and foreign artistic traditions on the Sienese artists. For example, Duccio's biblical characters are often garbed in clothes adorned with Islamic patterning derived from Turkish textiles.

The Significance of the Exhibition

The exhibition is significant not only because of the high caliber of the artworks on display but also because it provides a unique opportunity to see the development of painting in the 13th century. The exhibition shows how the Sienese artists experimented with naturalism, painted text, and multi-panel formats, laying the groundwork for the Renaissance.

The Exhibition's Conclusion

The exhibition concludes with Martini's Christ on the Cross (ca. 1340), a painting that thrums with a kind of awkwardness that's only possible when art is still between movements. The painting shows the body of a scrawny Jesus gushing blood, sending a rivulet of scarlet down his crucifix and onto the ground below. The painting is a powerful conclusion to the exhibition, highlighting the innovative and experimental nature of the Sienese artists.