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Barna da Siena

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Abstract

This text offers a critical assessment of Barna da Siena, an enigmatic figure traditionally celebrated as a premier 14th-century master of the Sienese School. Analysis focuses on the intense emotionalism, dramatic narrative linearity, and plastic substance defining the works historically attributed to him, which expanded upon the aesthetic idioms of Simone Martini. Particular scholarly focus is directed toward the monumentally complex New Testament fresco cycle in the Collegiata of San Gimignano, evaluating its iconographic innovations and profound expression of human pathos. Crucially, the text addresses the profound modern historiographical debates and skepticism surrounding Barna’s actual historical existence—originally codified by Lorenzo Ghiberti and Giorgio Vasari—examining how contemporary connoisseurship increasingly reassigns this dramatic corpus to the workshop or circle of Lippo Memmi and related Trecento masters.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationMedieval Italy: An Encyclopedia
EditorsChristopher Kleinhenz
Place of PublicationNew York
PublisherRoutledge
Pages97-98
Number of pages2
Volume1
ISBN (Electronic)9781315161129
ISBN (Print)9780415939294
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2004

Publication series

NameRoutledge Encyclopedias of the Middle Ages
Number9

Keywords

  • Barna da Siena
  • Historiographical Debates
  • Sienese Painting
  • Italy
  • Siena
  • San Gimignano
  • Tuscany
  • Fresco Painting
  • Mural Painting
  • Simone Martini
  • Lippo Memmi
  • Workshop
  • Bottega
  • 14th Century
  • Trecento Frescoes
  • Medieval Art
  • Late Gothic Pathos
  • Attribution Connoisseurship
  • Collegiata di Santa Maria Assunta (San Gimignano)
  • Lorenzo Ghiberti
  • Giorgio Vasari

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