python_regius | Фрески крипты Собора Сиены (около 1270-1275 г.г.) (Reply)

The very recent, sensational discover, of a part of the crypt of the Siena Duomo, entirely covered with frescoes, made by a group of Sienese artists which can be dated back to 1270-1275 circa, brought to light an important place of medieval cult, provided with the original pictorial decoration, in a preservation state that has no equals. The deepness of the light blues, the intensity of reds and greens, the glittering of all the golden decorations still keep a freshness that may be only compared to that of miniatures, whose fate was to stay in the dark, sealed among the book pages. Even the crypt paintings, infact, covered for centuries by debris and soil and kept in an almost dry environment, haven't been subject to fading caused, during the centuries, by light and kept protected by any other external revision, remaking or mutilation.
A large biblical serie unfolds on the walls, with scenes from the Old and the New Testament, from the stories of the Garden of Eden to the tales of Cain and Abel, of Isaac and Esao', and the Life of Mary and Christ, to finally see the drama of Passion, solemnly represented in three even more impressive scenes: Crocifissione ('Crucifixion'), Deposizione dalla Croce ('Deposition from the cross'), Deposizione nel sepolcro ('Deposition in the sepulchre').
Many of these frescoes, tied to iconographic schemes connected to the byzantine tradition with a vivid architecture to act as a background or sidelines, delicately colored in the tones of pink, light blue and purple, are familiar to those knowing Sienese painting of the 13th Century, since recent times especially known though the paintings of Guido da Siena, Dietisalvi di Speme, Rinaldo da Siena, or Guido di Graziano. The whole of the discovered paintings, which is pretty complex, shows the hand of different craftsman, who probably worked in a very tight group.
The discover gives great importance to the Sienese school prior to Duccio, allowing the school to be as important as the great pictorial fact of the period in Middle Italy: from Pisa to Umbria to the case of Cimabue, who worked in Tuscany and in Rome where, during the seventies and the eighties of the 13th century, he was considered the most influential artist at all. Particularly, the artists who made the 'Crocifissione' and the 'Deposizione dalla Croce' seem attracted by the great florentine artist works: the latter, in the ability to a close rendering of the feelings and to communicate the drama, witnesses his deep interest in Nicola Pisano sculpture as well. Of all the figurations of the crypt, this is the most surprising, raising a lot of doubts as well: apart from this, the sweetness of the pictorial spreading and the naturalness of the faces define the most modern factors of the whole serie and conform to the oldest pictorial evidences produced by Duccio himself.

http://duccio.siena.it/w2d3/v3/view/duccio/home_en.html

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