The Cathedrals of Pisa, Siena and Florence
The Cathedrals of Pisa, Siena and Florence

Author: Pietro Matracchi

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2021-07-29

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 0429616058

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The construction techniques and concepts of the cathedrals of Pisa, Siena and Florence are examined in detail, based on new data and using a methodological architectural diagnostics approach. New detailed surveys, carried out using often advanced tools, together with direct and in-depth inspections to examine all parts of the buildings, have enabled us to identify the building phases and the different construction techniques used over time. The information thereby acquired also formed the basis for a new interpretation of the archival documents. Accordingly, the problems encountered and the solutions adopted in the three cathedrals have been understood: in Pisa the construction of the elliptical dome above the rectangular crossing consisting of six thin pillars below; in Siena the design changes from the first system in the 13th century to the ‘Duomo Nuovo’, and the structural adaptations following earthquakes; the specific construction solutions adopted in Florence during the instability encountered in the construction of the large vaults of the basilican body. The comparison of the three buildings in terms of architectural and construction solutions also revealed unexpected relationships between the construction events of Siena’s Duomo Nuovo and the solutions then used in the large basilican body of Santa Maria del Fiore. The methodology employed has led to an understanding of the actual structure of the three cathedrals, an essential basis for a correct evaluation of the state of conservation of the churches for any restoration work. The book is aimed at scholars of architecture and ancient building structures, graduate and postgraduate students, and architects and engineers who plan architectural conservation and strengthening works for historical buildings.

Art in Renaissance Italy
Art in Renaissance Italy

Author: John T. Paoletti

Publisher: Laurence King Publishing

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 575

ISBN-13: 1856694399

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'Art in Renaissance Italy' sets the art of that time in its context, exploring why it was created and in particular looking at who commissioned the palaces and cathedrals, the paintings and the sculptures.

Siena and the Virgin
Siena and the Virgin

Author: Diana Norman

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 1999-01-01

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 0300080069

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Celebrating the Virgin Mary as both an object of religious affection and a focus of civic pride, artists of fourteenth-century Siena established for their city a vibrant tradition that continued into the early decades of the next century. Such celebratory portraits of the Virgin were also common in Siena's extensive subject territories, the contado. This richly illustrated book explores late medieval Sienese art--how it was created, commissioned, and understood by the citizens of Siena. Examining political, economic, and cultural relations between Siena and the contado, Diana Norman offers a new understanding of Marian art and its political function as an expression of civic ideology. Drawing on extensive unpublished archives, Norman reconstructs the circumstances surrounding the commission of Marian art in the three most prestigious locations of fourteenth-century Siena: the cathedral, the Palazzo Pubblico, and the hospital of Santa Maria della Scala. She analyzes similarly important commissions in the contado towns of Massa Marittima, Montalcino, and Montepulciano. Casting new light on such topics as the original site for the reliquary tomb of Saint Cerbone, patron saint of Massa Marittima, and the identity of the patrons of the Marian frescoes in the rural hermitage of San Leonardo al Lago, the author deepens our insight into the origins and meanings of Sienese art production of the late medieval period.

The Cathedral Builders
The Cathedral Builders

Author: Leader Scott

Publisher: FilRougeViceversa

Published: 2021-08-27

Total Pages: 394

ISBN-13: 3985942838

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In most histories of Italian art we are conscious of a vast hiatus of several centuries, between the ancient classic art of Romewhich was in its decadence when the Western Empire ceased in the fifth century after Christand that early rise of art in the twelfth century which led to the Renaissance.This hiatus is generally supposed to be a time when Art was utterly dead and buried, its corpse in Byzantine dress lying embalmed in its tomb at Ravenna. But all death is nothing but the germ of new life. Art was not a corpse, it was only a seed, laid in Italian soil to germinate, and it bore several plants before the great reflowering period of the Renaissance.The seed sown by the Classic schools formed the link between them and the Renaissance, just as the Romance Languages of Provence and Languedoc form the link between the dying out of the classic Latin and the rise of modern languages.Now where are we to look for this link?In language we find it just between the Roman and Gallic Empires.In Art it seems also to be on that borderlandLombardywhere the Magistri Comacini, a mediæval Guild of Liberi Muratori (Freemasons), kept alive in their traditions the seed of classic art, slowly training it through Romanesque forms up to the Gothic, and hence to the full Renaissance.

Art as Politics in Late Medieval and Renaissance Siena
Art as Politics in Late Medieval and Renaissance Siena

Author: TimothyB. Smith

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-05

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 1351575597

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In Art as Politics in Late Medieval and Renaissance Siena, contributors explore the evolving relationship between image and politics in Siena from the time of the city-state's defeat of Florence at the Battle of Montaperti in 1260 to the end of the Sienese Republic in 1550. Engaging issues of the politicization of art in Sienese painting, sculpture, architecture, and urban design, the volume challenges the still-prevalent myth of Siena's cultural and artistic conservatism after the mid fourteenth century. Clearly establishing uniquely Sienese artistic agendas and vocabulary, these essays broaden our understanding of the intersection of art, politics, and religion in Siena by revisiting its medieval origins and exploring its continuing role in the Renaissance.

Gothic Art 1140-c. 1450
Gothic Art 1140-c. 1450

Author: Teresa Grace Frisch

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 1987-01-01

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 9780802066794

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An anthology offering a chronological assessment of a whole range of technical documents on art written by and for clerks, laymen, churchmen, lawyers, city magistrates, and guilds, this text reveals differences in milieu, customs , resources and psychology during different periods. First Published in 1971 by Prentice Hall.

The Scribe of Siena
The Scribe of Siena

Author: Melodie Winawer

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2017-05-16

Total Pages: 464

ISBN-13: 1501152270

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“Like Outlander with an Italian accent.” —Real Simple “A detailed historical novel, a multifaceted mystery, and a moving tale of improbable love.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review A NEW YORK POST MUST-READ BOOK Readers of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander and Tracy Chevalier’s Girl with a Pearl Earring…will be swept away by the spell of medieval Siena” (Library Journal, starred review) in this transporting love story and gripping historical mystery. Accomplished neurosurgeon Beatrice Trovato knows that her deep empathy for her patients is starting to impede her work. So when her beloved brother passes away, she welcomes the unexpected trip to the Tuscan city of Siena to resolve his estate, even as she wrestles with grief. But as she delves deeper into her brother’s affairs, she discovers intrigue she never imagined—a 700-year-old conspiracy to decimate the city. As Beatrice explores the evidence further, she uncovers the journal and paintings of the fourteenth-century artist Gabriele Accorsi. But when she finds a startling image of her own face, she is suddenly transported to the year 1347. She awakens in a Siena unfamiliar to her, one that will soon be hit by the Plague. Yet when Beatrice meets Accorsi, something unexpected happens: she falls in love—not only with Gabriele, but also with the beauty and cadence of medieval life. As the Plague and the ruthless hands behind its trajectory threaten not only her survival but also Siena’s very existence, Beatrice must decide in which century she belongs. The Scribe of Siena is the captivating story of a brilliant woman’s passionate affair with a time and a place that captures her in an impossibly romantic and dangerous trap—testing the strength of fate and the bonds of love.

The Civic Muse
The Civic Muse

Author: Frank A. D'Accone

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2007-12-01

Total Pages: 894

ISBN-13: 0226133680

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Siena, blessed with neither the aristocratic nor the ecclesiastical patronage enjoyed by music in other northern Italian centers like Florence, nevertheless attracted first-rate composers and performers from all over Europe. As Frank A. D'Accone shows in this scrupulously documented study, policies developed by the town to favor the common good formed the basis of Siena's ambitious musical programs. Based on decades of research in the town's archives, D'Accone's The Civic Muse brilliantly illuminates both the sacred and the secular aspects of more than three centuries of music and music-making in Siena. After detailing the history of music and liturgy at Siena's famous cathedral and of civic music at the Palazzo Pubblico, D'Accone describes the crucial role that music played in the daily life of the town, from public festivities for foreign dignitaries to private musical instruction. Putting Siena squarely on the Renaissance musical map, D'Accone's monumental study will interest both musicologists and historians of the Italian Renaissance.