Renaissance Siena. Art in Context (review)

In the opening line of his Introduction to Renaissance Siena, editor A. Lawrence Jenkens asks a significant and seldom-posed question: did the Tuscan city of Siena experience a Renaissance, particularly in regard to art and architecture? The answer, evidenced by this anthology's nine essays, is a resounding yes; taken as a whole, the volume stands as testament to the recent revival of Sienese studies, one with a focus on the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries rather than the much-considered Trecento Golden Age. What is new in this collection is an attempt to consider Sienese art entirely within a local context, free from the traditional negative assessment engendered by comparison with Renaissance Florence, and in many cases within a social-political framework that contrasts with earlier, more conservative methodological approaches.

In particular, there is much here that will be of interest to scholars of the history of architecture and urbanism. Judith Steinhoff examines the rise of a new artistic genre, the contemporaneous cityscape, relating several examples symbolically to specific political issues and moments of crisis for the Sienese commune. In his contribution, Matthias Quast demonstrates that the fully articulated palace façade emerged in Renaissance Siena only after the systematic removal of balconies and cantilevered additions and in one of three forms that stemmed from Gothic, Florentine, and ancient inspiration. Fabrizio J. D. Nevola's essay on the Palazzo Spannocchi situates that palace within the context of competing public and private interests in urban space, tracing the process by which the patron systematically acquired prime real estate along the Strada Romana, the city's most important thoroughfare and a target of commune-sponsored renewal. Similarly concerned with the conflict between the public and the private, Mauro Mussolin explores the architecture of the church of Santo Spirito and its monastic complex in light of the often-rocky relationship among the Sienese, the local observant Dominican community, and the fiery Florentine preacher Savonarola.

Other essays address a range of issues, including civic religion, humanist influence on the visual arts, and the connection between workshop practice and the reading of narrative. Susan E. Wegner charts an increase in Sienese intercessory images of Saint Catherine of Siena and the decline of those of the Virgin, linking the phenomenon to the political strategies of the despot Pandolfo Petrucci. The dynastic and patriotic significance of the frescoes in the Piccolomini Library is addressed by Stratton D. Green, who views the room's painted biography of Pope Pius II as a form of epideictic rhetoric based on the idea of an ancient funerary oration. In his discussion of Francesco di Giorgio's painted scenes on Sienese cassoni, David Benjamin unravels the complicated relationship among artists, patrons, literary sources, and the development of visual narrative.

The book's one lamentable exclusion is the study of Sienese sculpture. Although Jenkens partly explains this absence in the Introduction by referring to vital scholarly work yet to be carried out, the anthology would have greatly benefited from at least one exploration of this medium. Regardless of this lacuna, Renaissance Siena represents an important contribution to the field and one that will rightly challenge lingering misconceptions about the city and its art beyond the Black Death.