Dreams of Gothic and Renaissance
Siennese Painting of the 14th - First Half of the 16th Centuries

On 25 June, 2002, the exhibition Dreams of Gothic and Renaissance dedicated to the Siennese school of the 14th - first half of the 16th centuries in the Hermitage collection opened in the Hall of Twelve Columns (No. 244) of the New Hermitage.
In the 17th century Siena was sometimes called sleeping beauty because she made her contribution to the development of Italian art earlier, mostly in the 14th century, when even the painting of Florence was inferior to that of Siena.
Unfortunately, the Hermitage does not possess works of any of the major Siennese painters; neither does it possess large-size fully preserved polyptychs of the 14th-15th centuries. However, 24 works showed in the exhibition represent various stages in the development of Siennese art, spanning two and a half centuries.
Exhibits include a masterpiece of Simone Martini (ca. 1284-1344) Madonna from Annunciation, works of Pietro Lorenzetti (fl. 1306-1348), the most Florentine of Siennese masters, Andrea di Vanni, Bartolo di Fredi, Paolo di Giovanni Fei and Taddeo di Bartolo who worked at the turn of the 14th-15th centuries, Bernardino Fungai (1460-1516), Giovanni Antonio Bazzi, nicknamed Sodoma (1477-1549), and Domenico Beccafumi (1485-1551).
The Hermitage Publishing House published an illustrated catalogue of the exhibition, prepared by the exhibition's curator Tatyana K. Kustodiyeva, Senior Researcher, West European Art Department, State Hermitage Museum.

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State Hermitage Director Mikhail Piotrovsky

Exhibition's curator Tatyana Kustodiyeva

At the exhibition