The East Gallery - Rooms 2 to 7
[ Art Collections: Tuscan Primitives (Rms 2-4); Florentine Gothics (Rms 5-6) ]
Exploring the Gallery
A good place to begin is with the Tuscan Primitives in Rooms 2 to 4; the first, entitled “Giotto and the 13th century,” presents two startling Maestà (Madonna enthroned with Child and Angels); Giotto’s grandiose Ognissanti Madonna (about 1310), created for the church of the same name in the sacred yet naturalistic style he championed; and Cimabue’s Santa Trinità Madonna (1280-90), taken from the altar of the Church of Santa Trinità and with visible roots in the formerly prevalent Byzantine style. Room 3 displays works by 14th-century Sienese artists such as Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti, including a Maestà (1340) created by the former, and Simone Martini’s Annunciation (1333) taken from Siena’s Duomo and depicting a rather timid-looking Madonna surprised reading by the arriving angel. Further trecento artists follow in Room 4, this time from the Florentine school (Bernardo Daddi, Taddeo Gaddi, Jacopo del Casentino, Giottino, Nardo di Cione and Andrea Orcagna, among others).
Move on to Rooms 5 and 6 for works by Florentine Gothic artists from the end of the 14th and the start of the 15th century, such as Lorenzo Monaco, Fra Angelico and Gentile da Fabriano, whose emphasis on detail and gilded decoration in the Adoration of the Magi (1423) is representative of this pictorial period known as International Gothic. Room 7 is dedicated to the first masters of the Renaissance with exploratory creations by Fra Angelico, Masolino, Masaccio, Piero della Francesca and Uccello (including his The Battle of San Romano, circa 1453, which, depicting the decisive combat in the wars between Florence and Siena, is said to have once hung in the bedroom of Lorenzo Il Magnifico).
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