Unit information: Early Sienese Painting (Level I Lecture Response Unit) in 2012/13

Unit name	Early Sienese Painting (Level I Lecture Response Unit)
Unit code	HART25001
Credit points	20
Level of study	I/5
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Professor. Williamson
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of History of Art (Historical Studies)
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This unit will explore Sienese painting in the period c. 1260 to c. 1360. This period is often seen as the ‘golden age’ of Sienese art, when Siena rivalled, and in some aspects, surpassed, the better-known achievements of its rival, and close neighbour, Florence. Fourteenth-century Sienese art has been characterised both as the climactic achievement of the middle ages and as the dawn of the renaissance. We will consider the effect of such designations, and how accurate, or useful, they may be. The work of Duccio, Simone Martini, Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Pietro Lorenzetti will all be considered, as well as that of lesser-known artists, and that of non-Sienese artists working in Siena. Relationships between Sienese and Florentine painting will be considered. The unit will place the works of art in their historical, social, religious and political contexts, and will consider their function and viewership as much as their patronage and production.

Specifically, this unit aims: to explore the artistic culture of Siena during a time of particularly high quality artistic production; to consider painting produced by Sienese artists, in Siena and beyond, and that produced for Sienese patrons by artists from elsewhere; to analyse the characteristic style and iconography of Sienese art, to compare Sienese art with that of different areas; and to investigate the patronage and production of Sienese painting, and its viewership and function

Intended Learning Outcomes

The students should:

• acquire a broad grounding in the history of Early Sienese Painting, gain a familiarity with the major Sienese painters and their works (as well as key works by other artists) in the period c.1260-.c1360, and develop a sense of the function and viewership of Sienese painting
• obtain an understanding of the historical, political, cultural and theological contexts within which this painting was produced
• be provided with particular perspectives from the tutor to which students can react critically and build their own individual views and interpretations

Teaching Information

Weekly 2-hour interactive lecture sessions Tutorial feedback on essay Access to tutorial consultation with unit tutor in consultation hours

Assessment Information

A 3000 word essay (50%) and 2-hour unseen written examination (50%) will assess the student’s understanding of artistic developments in the field of study and of the ways in which art historians have interpreted developments in the field; test the student’s ability to think critically and develop their own views and interpretations; and test students’ familiarity with the history of Early Sienese painting and the use and reception of Sienese Painting within its political and cultural contexts.

Reading and References

Diana Norman (ed.), Florence, Siena and Padua, 1280-1400, 2 vols. (1995)

Hayden Maginnis, Painting in the Age of Giotto: a historical re-evaluation (1997)

Diana Norman, Siena and the Virgin. Art and politics in a late medieval city-state (1999)

Joanna Cannon and Beth Williamson (eds.), Art, Politics and Civic Religion in Central Italy, 1261–c. 1352 (2000)

Hayden Maginnis, The World of the Early Sienese Painter (2001)

Diana Norman, Painting in Late Medieval and Renaissance Siena (2003)

Timothy Hyman, Sienese Painting (2003)

Judith B. Steinhoff, Sienese Painting after the Black Death (2006)