This is how Siena lived its golden age

The darker the night, the more the gold glows. This is the vibrant and almost physical sensation rendered by the deep blue that envelops the rooms of the National Gallery in London where one can admire 'Siena - The rise of painting 1300-1350', a lofty and refined exhibition. It is in the middle of the Middle Ages, but with that light, it already seems as if we are looking into a new era, made up of artistic exchanges and the observation of nature, which go beyond the religious themes of the works.

The exhibition, supported by Intesa Sanpaolo and born from the collaboration between the National Gallery in London and the Metropolitan Museum in New York, will remain memorable for the research that accompanied it and resulted in a valuable catalogue. Siena is rich in the 14th century, banking and trade take it to the centre of the world. And it is four artists, Duccio di Buoninsegna, Simone Martini, and the brothers Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti, who eternalise it. Already in the first room the Met's Madonna with Child, a work by Duccio, traces the way. The leading Sienese painter of his generation (documented 1278, died 1319), familiar with Byzantine icons and the Gothic style, depicts the Virgin and Jesus with human gestures, so much so that the child almost pulls at his mother's veil and touches her wrist with his toes. There is a gentleness unknown to Byzantine icons that is Duccio's genius, as can also be seen in the eight surviving panels of the rear predella of the Maestà (1308-1311), the masterpiece that the artist created and signed (a unique case) for Siena Cathedral in honour of the Virgin, patron and protector of the city. The work, most likely made with workshop collaborators, including Simone Martini, Pietro and possibly Ambrogio Lorenzetti, is sawn in half and the predella dismantled in 1771. Its panels are cut so that the scenes can be exhibited and sold separately. Thus, after 250 years, the exhibition brings together for the first time the eight surviving panels of the rear predella to bring out Duccio's narrative ability, made vivid by the colours, such as the red of the Madonna's dress in the Annunciation.

After Duccio's death, Simone Martini (ca. 1284-1344) was the main recipient of civic commissions and his name appears almost continuously in public registers. His civic commitment might suggest a serious and formal art, but in reality he developed an unsurpassed technical virtuosity and experimented with large and small formats, fixed and unfixed, objects of devotion, which observe us as we look at them and wonder how many millions of eyes have sought consolation in those gazes. Among his many exhibited works, the Orsini Polyptych, shared between the museums of Antwerp, Paris and Berlin, is a sophisticated synthesis of Simone Martini's art: Mary receives the announcement that she will become the mother of Christ in a suspended time, while the Passion cycle is cacophonous, full of colour and clangour.

Alongside the great artists, there is space in the exhibition for lesser-known but powerful authors. Lando di Pietro is a goldsmith, sculptor and architect, and the author of the bells for Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. For the Dominicans of Siena he created an almost life-size Crucifix, damaged by bombing during the Second World War. Only the head remains, with its gaunt face and barred eyes. It looks like a photo from the Ukrainian front or the exhausted eyes from Gaza. More reassuring is the look of the St. Paul (circa 1330) by Lippo Memmi or the coeval St. John the Baptist by Tino di Camaino.

These were mainly the decades of the Lorenzetti brothers. On 17 April 1320, Pietro (ca. 1280/1285-1348) signed a contract for a monumental multi-panel altarpiece for the church of Santa Maria della Pieve in Arezzo. According to the instructions in the document, it was to have a central image of the Virgin and Child, flanked by four saints chosen by the client, the bishop of Arezzo, Guido Tarlati. The contract also mentions the boards to be provided for Pietro to work on and specifies the expensive materials he was to use. The Madonna, with sculptural solidity and almost in the act of uttering a word, 'pierces' the gold, surrounded by Saints Donato, John the Evangelist, John the Baptist and Matthew: this is the first time in seven centuries that the work has left Arezzo. What is striking, as in other panels, is the richness of Mary's cloak. There was no shortage of luxurious fabrics in Siena, and the exhibition proposes many: silk came from Lucca and was also imported from central and eastern Asia, so it was natural for artists to imitate the designs.