Video highlight: 14th-century Siena - The art that shaped the future

Fondo Oro:

Stepping out of the traditional gallery walls and directly into the Tuscan landscape, this visually stunning film by the National Gallery brings the vibrant world of 14th-century Sienese art to life. The production seamlessly weaves together on-location footage in Italy with expert curatorial insights to explore how pioneering masters like Duccio, Simone Martini, and the Lorenzetti brothers boldly redefined the future of painting. A highlight is the creative digital animation that imaginatively reinstates Duccio’s monumental Maestà inside the Siena Cathedral, recapturing a sense of its original spiritual power and architectural scale. This feature offers an perspective on how these delicate gold-ground works resonated within both grand civic spaces and the intimate lives of early Renaissance patrons.

“The artists Duccio, Simone Martini and the brothers Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti were not afraid to paint in a new way - and each brought their own innovations to the works they produced.  Note that in this film we see a digital animation of the 'Maestà' 'inside' Siena cathedral. It is not intended as a formal reconstruction and it is not to scale. Visit Siena to imagine their marvellous altarpieces reinstated and smaller devotional pieces in the hands of the people who commissioned them. Filmed on location in Siena and in the National Gallery, watch as curators along with local experts and artists introduce us to the leading artists and their exquisite influential works.”