Renaissance Siena: Art for a City

The talk reveals how Siena - a city familar to many as centre fo the "gothic" - was also a major artistic centre during the Renaissance. Through the patronage of papal families such as the Piccolomini and wealthy bankers such as the Spannocchi and Chigi, the city was transformed over the course of a century, retaining a distinctive style that looked back to both the recent past and to aledged Roman origins. Local artists, such as Jacopo della Quercia and Francesco di Giorgio Martini, as well as famous "imports" like Donatello or Pinturicchio renewed the city and its major monuments. The talk is based on research Professor Nevola did for his 2007 monograph and an exhibition he contributed to at the National Gallery, London the same year.

Fabrizio Nevola is Professor of Art History and Visual Culture at the University of Exeter. His first book, Siena: Constructing the Renaissance City (Yale University Press, 2007) was awarded the Royal Institute of British Architects, Sir Nikolaus Pevsner International Book Award for Architecture. His most resent monograph is Street Life in Renaissance Italy (Yale University Press, 2020), which was shortlisted for the Renaissance Studies Biennial book prize (2022). More recently, through grant funded research projects, including the ‘Hidden Cities’ apps and the Florence 4D website, he has developed digital art history approaches using geodata, 3D modelling and GPS technologies.