Sypher on art & design : Siena and the beginnings of the Italian Renaissance

Date

Jan 16, 2025 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM

Location

parlor

Admission

Open to the public
RSVP required

$5 | General admission
FREE | Salmagundi members
A angel kneels before a robed woman.
Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi, "The Annunciation, detail of central panel", tempera and gold on panel, 1333, Uffizi, Florence.

About the Event

Astonishing is the fact that Siena in the early 14th century was ruled not by a feudal lord but by Nine Governors and Defenders of the Commune and People of Siena, selected every two months.

Perhaps related to this new form of government is that Christian iconography now changes from the stiff frontal Byzantine effect to expressive emotions coming from bodies or hands or clothing, even faces. Duccio helped to establish the convenience of movable independent painting. His heirs are Simone Martini, Pietro Lorenzetti and his brother Ambrogio Lorenzetti, who painted The Allegory of Good and Bad Government, as well as a city scape and landscape of Siena for the City Hall—the first of their kind in Italian painting.

In addition to these painters, we will look at molded and flowing realism in the sculptures of Nicola Pisano and his son Giovanni Pisano.

A bearded man in a robe walks through a path with dead trees.

About the Speaker

Recently returned to Greenwich Village, a few steps away from the venerated Salmagundi Club, Eleanor K. Sypher has volunteered her extensive skills in a series of talks on art history, first enjoyed at Arizona State University and a local art center for the past six years. Eleanor is well-acquainted with ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, Byzantium, The Italian Renaissance, The Baroque in Italy and Holland, Rococo in France, the Impressionists, and European and American artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Eleanor holds a B.A. in English from Smith College;  and an M.A. in Latin and Ph.D. In Greek and Latin from Columbia University. Employment in New York included teaching, book editing and directing a foundation for 25 years. Earlier volunteer work involved founding a charter school in the South Bronx and fundraising for that school and a church.

Hungry?

Grab a bite to eat after the event from our dining room (a normally member-only benefit)! Ticketed attendees who would like to stay for drinks and dinner should make dining reservations in advance via our Reservations page with the message “Sypher dinner”.

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