(piano playing)
Dr. Zucker: We're in the museum of the
Cathedral of Siena and we're looking at
one of the great Sienese's artist, Pietro Lorenzetti's
The Birth of the Virgin.
This is painted by a man who was Duccio,
the great Sienese's master student.
Some scholars think that Pietro helped Duccio
paint the Maesta.
Dr. Harris: There's a lot of paintings in the
Maesta, I hoped someone helped him.
Dr. Zucker: (laughs) That's true.
This is a painting that would have functioned
as a secondary altar piece in the Siena Cathedral.
It is a three part painting, it actually shows one
continuous space.
Dr. Harris: Well then let's remember that the
Virgin Mary was the protector of the city of Siena.
Dr. Zucker: This is about the birth of the Virgin,
not the birth of Christ, but the birth of Mary, herself.
In the central scene we have this beautiful
Medieval interior.
I have to say that the Sienese pay attention
in the 14th Century to architecture in a way
that nobody else does.
There is a love of the rendering of space
and furnishings.
Dr. Harris: We have the vaulting in the ceiling,
the windows, the painted moldings,
the tiles on the floor, the chest next to Anne's bed.
We almost get a sense of what it was like
in a household in 14th Century Siena.
Dr. Zucker: It's true, even the fact that a bedroom
was kind of public space and you can see Anne
reclining on the bed, she's got a real sense
of mask and volume.
The bed doesn't look all that comfortable,
it doesn't seem to be yielding to her.
Dr. Harris: No.
Dr. Zucker: But the body does seem to be
under that drapery in a most emphatic way.
Dr. Harris: I think Pietro has [Sienjato]
because his figures are really bulky and
three dimensional.
Dr. Zucker: Of course, Duccio, his master was
already moving towards a sense of mass
and volume using chiaroscuro
but perhaps not as emphatically as Giotto had.
Dr. Harris: She's just big and chubby
the way that Giotto's figures are.
Dr. Zucker: Right, almost like
the Ognissanti Madonna.
Dr. Harris: Exactly.
Dr. Zucker: Yeah, but if you look at the attendants
who are washing Mary in the basin,
they're pretty substantial.
The figure in green on the right looks like
she could have come right out of the Lamentation
from the Arena Chapel.
There are more attendants coming in with fresh
cloths, it looks like, on the right
and fresh water.
Dr. Harris: The two scenes on the right are unified
in their architecture, although, Anne is separated
out with the mother of Mary.
Dr. Zucker: In the left panel we see a room outside,
where it seems as if Joachim, Anna's husband,
is being told that the birth is taking place.
Dr. Harris: I love his face.
He's like an expectant father who's been worried
about what's going on and is now anxious to hear.
The view outside must be Siena.
As we walked around the streets of the city
I can recognize buildings that looked like this.
Dr. Zucker: Of course it's important to remember
that the architecture that we're seeing is
12th and 13th Century and of course that's
12 and 1300 years after this event would have
taken place, so it's completely out of chronology.
I think the point was to create something
that was familiar, something that the Sienese
audience would recognize.
I'm also taken with the attempt by
Pietro Lorenzetti to create a sense of
recession.
Not only do you have an interior space that is
architecturally detailed, but if you look at
the vaulting, for example, you can see where
the ribs in the vaulting come together in the
central panel and the panels on the right
and the left they're obscured,
as they would be if we were looking
at those ceilings.
This is not linear perspective,
but there is a real attention to the basic
tenets of seeing space and rendering it on
a two dimensional surface.
That's also really evident in the bedspread.
Dr. Harris: So there are diagonal lines that appear
to be receding into space in the bedspread.
Dr. Zucker: Right, but I bet if we lined them up
with a pencil we would not reach a single
vanishing point.
Dr. Harris: No.
Dr. Zucker: Right, so it's not linear perspective.
There is a real sensitivity and a real attempt
to create a sense of space.
I think the Sienese were doing just amazing
things in the 14th Century.
Dr. Harris: So often we pay attention to Florence
and maybe we don't give Siena quite as much
attention as we should.
(piano playing)