polity republic of siena
Birth of the Virgin
Triptych altarpiece (1342 CE) by Pietro Lorenzetti, tempera and gold on panel, made for the altar of Sant'Ansano in Siena Cathedral. Depicts the birth of the Virgin Mary in a Gothic-arched interior with remarkable spatial depth and naturalistic domestic detail. One of the most spatially advanced paintings of the 14th century; the triptych frame becomes architectural space. Currently at Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena.
Notes
- ·Signed and dated: 'PETRUS LAURENTII DE SENIS ME PINXIT ANNO DOMINI MCCCXLII' (Pietro Lorenzetti of Siena painted me in the year of the Lord 1342).
- ·The most innovative feature: the architectural frame of the triptych (the Gothic arch dividers) is incorporated into the painted interior space — the columns that divide the three panels become the actual columns of the painted bedroom. This fusion of frame and image space is unprecedented in Italian panel painting.
- ·The scene depicts St Anne reclining after childbirth; attendants bathe and swaddle the newborn Virgin; Joachim receives the news in the left panel.
- ·The spatial depth and domestic detail (tiled floor, carved bed, curtained canopy) reflect Sienese absorption of Giotto's spatial innovations, combined with a more decorative Gothic sensibility.
- ·Pietro Lorenzetti (c.1280–1348) and his brother Ambrogio (c.1290–1348) both died in the Black Death of 1348 — the catastrophe that ended Siena's artistic golden age.
- ·Removed from Siena Cathedral to the Opera del Duomo museum in the 19th century.