Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The next room stays in Siena but moves into the 14th century. The highlight is Simone
Martini's shimmering
Annunciation
(1333), painted with Lippo Memmi and setting the
Madonna in a sea of gold. Also of note is
Madonna with Child and Saints
(1340) by Pi-
etro Lorenzetti, which demonstrates a realism similar to Giotto's; unfortunately both Pi-
etro and his artistic brother Ambrogio died from the plague in Siena in 1348.
Masters in 14th-century Florence paid as much attention to detail as their Sienese coun-
terparts, as works in the next room demonstrate: savour the depth of realism and ex-
traordinary gold-leaf work of
San Remigio Pietà
(1360-65) by gifted Giotto pupil, Giot-
tino (otherwise known as Giotto di Stefano).
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International Gothic
Rooms 5 and 6 (actually one large room) are dedicated to works of the International Goth-
ic style, with the knockout piece being Gentile da Fabriano's
Adoration of the Magi
(1423), originally commissioned by Palla Strozzi for Santa Trìnita.
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Renaissance Pioneers
A concern for perspective was a hallmark of the early-15th-century Florentine school
(Room 7) that pioneered the Renaissance. One panel (the other two are in the Louvre and
London's National Gallery) from Paolo Uccello's striking
Battle of San Romano
(1436-40), which celebrates Florence's victory over Siena, shows the artist's efforts to
create perspective with amusing effect as he directs the lances, horses and soldiers to a
central disappearing point.
In Room 8, Piero della Francesca's famous profile portraits (1465) of the crooked -
nosed, red-robed Duke and Duchess of Urbino are wholly humanist in spirit: the former
painted from the left side as he'd lost his right eye in a jousting accident, and the latter
painted a deathly stone-white, reflecting the fact the portrait was painted posthumously.
Carmelite monk Fra' Filippo Lippi had an unfortunate soft spot for earthly pleasures,
eloping with a nun from Prato and causing a huge scandal. Search out the artist's self-por-
trait as a podgy friar in
Coronation of the Virgin
(1439-47).
Another related pair, brothers Antonio and Piero del Pollaiolo, fill Room 9, where their
seven cardinal and theological values of 15th-century Florence - commissioned for the
merchant's tribunal in Piazza della Signoria - burst forth with fantastic energy. More re-
strained are Piero's
Portrait of Galeazzo Maria Sforza
(1471).
The only canvas in the theological and cardinal virtues series not to be painted by the
Pollaiolos was
Fortitude
(1470), the first documented work by Botticelli.
