Simone Martini, Sassetta and the entire Siena school at the Pushkin Museum. A. S. Pushkina

The Pushkin Museum opened the exhibition “Siena at the Dawn of the Renaissance”, dedicated to Siena painting of the 13th – 15th centuries. TheStatusSymbol.com magazine visited the preview and found out why the exhibition is important for the viewer?

The Siena school of painting - along with the Florentine and Venetian - played a leading role in the development of Renaissance painting. Without Siena, the Italian Renaissance would have been impossible. In the 13th century, Siena masters combined the traditions of Byzantine and Gothic painting to create their own unique school of painting.

At the exhibition, collected from the collection of the Pushkin Museum, the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Siena and the State Archives of Siena, the viewer will get acquainted with the signed “Crucifixion” of Segni di Bonaventura, the Sassetta polyptych, works by Andrea di Bartolo, Sano di Pietro, Matteo di Giovanni, Guidoccio Cozzarelli, Simone Martini , as well as the unique “Bikchera tavolettas”. The Tavolettas were used as the cover for the Siena Treasury's account books – “10 tablets representing a unique form of secular art that took place only in Siena. Such a number of tavolettas have never left the Main Archives of Siena, where, for reasons of preservation and their exceptional value, they are not in permanent public access. “Tavoletta Bikkerna”, also known as “Bikkerna” after the name of the institution for which they were made, or as “tavoletta”, that is, “tablets” - covers of the Siena Treasury account books written on a wooden base. “Bikkerns” were painted from the Middle Ages (1257) until the end of the XNUMXth century. The best Siena artists were involved in this work - the Lorenzetti brothers, Lippo Vanni, Giovanni di Paolo and others. Initially, tavolettas had a utilitarian function. Simple drawings, which helped to quickly find the right book, took shape in a special genre of secular painting, the iconography of which included images of the heads of the treasury and their workplaces. Over time, from a utilitarian element, tavolettas turned into an original work of art, and later into a collectible item. At the same time, today they represent the most important source of knowledge about the history of Siena and the structure of the Siena state,” - Pushkin Museum. A. S. Pushkin.

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Siena at the dawn of the Renaissance. Works from the National Pinacoteca in Siena, the State Archives of Siena, the Tuscan Museums and the Pushkin Museum. A.S. Pushkin

Dates: June 25 – October 3, 2021

Venue: Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin, Main building, Volkhonka, 12