Siena, Florence and Padua: Art, Society and Religion, 1280-1400, 2 vols.

These volumes, written by Diana Norman and her colleagues Tim Benton, Colin Cunningham, Charles Harrison and Catherine King in conjunction with a course offered by the Open University, constitute an impressive achievement. They serve as a comprehensive introduction to the major (and many minor) works of Italian art of the period, and as a well-informed presentation of the issues confronting the field today. Essays and case studies are full of sharp observations and balanced judgements, but they serve best as tidy syntheses of recent criticism and scholarship. This is particularly welcome, because despite the pivotal importance of Italian art of this period, there is a woeful lack of commentary available for both scholar and student. With the exception of John White's invaluable Art and Architecture in Italy 1250-1400 (Pelican History of Art), there is little else in English, or in any language to compare. This work does not surpass White's work, especially as it continues to rely heavily on White's definition of the field. It does, however, fill a void, combining depth of information and clarity of presentation.

Volume one offers a more synthetic and narrative overview of the work of the period, whereas volume two treats fewer monuments in greater detail, and ventures more into currently popular areas of study such as urbanism, patronage, and the role of women in art. Though the title restricts the study to three important art centers, the authors do manage to range further afield by following the fortunes of artists from Florence, Siena and Pisa on to Orvieto, Assisi, Rome, Naples and even Palermo. The inclusion of so much material on Padua, which is so often (and unfairly) slighted in American art history, is especially welcome. It is unfortunate that Rome itself was not included in the title and treated more substantially in the text. While the exploits of Giotto and Arnolfo di Cambio in the Papal capital are reported upon, the original contribution of papal patronage, and the achievements of such Rome-based artists as Jacopo di Torriti and Pietro Cavallini, are sorely missed. This oversight is the book's greatest shortcoming as a text.

Padua's Guariento and Altichiero, on the other hand, rise in the book to the level of great artists, with Altichiero securing substantial treatment for his frescoes in the Oratory of San Giorgio in Padua and Guariento for the frescoes in the Chapel of the Reggio. Their art is set firmly amidst the currents of the day, and also within the rich world of Carrara patronage.

Giotto is central to this book - as he must be in any book about fourteenth-century Florence and Padua. Of the doubtful but still oft-made attribution of the Saint Francis cycle in Assisi to Giotto, Charles Harrison writes: "It is not my intention that this essay should become enmeshed in specific questions of attribution to individual names . . . however, I believe that consideration of the Life of Saint Francis cycle must occupy a significant place in any essay surveying the work associated with Giotto's name, even if the artist we know as Giotto played no part whatsoever in their execution" (1:85). Discussion of the Assisi frescoes is therefore included, even though it is unlikely they owe anything to the title cities. Harrison argues for a date of the late 1290s for the Saint Francis cycle, thus rendering it not a work of Giotto himself but an important influence on his art nevertheless.

Making art through the obtaining of commissions, the meeting of patrons' expectations, and the physical manufacture of the works, is an important theme. Carving and casting are well treated in volume one's fifth chapter; building trades and design methods are summarily treated in the same volume's chapter six; and the motives and avenues of patronage are explored in chapters seven and eight, and further pursued in volume two's chapter seven, in a detailed discussion of the paintings of the Sala dei Nove in the Palazzo Pubblico, Siena. The approach is best summarized by Catherine King in her chapter about women patrons: "Looking at commissioners of art and architecture involves treating art history as a broad discipline where the study of who initiated works of art and their uses and meanings is as important as consideration of the artists and techniques used to construct them" (2:243). King treats fascinating but little-known works, such as the Virgin and Child with Saints and Fina Buzzacarina, which surmounts the tomb of Fina (who was the wife of Padua's ruler), in the Baptistry of Padua. The author suggests that this work, as well as a painting of Christ's entombment placed in what was probably a woman's tomb in the Berdi di Vernio Chapel at Santa Croce in Florence, gives much greater prominence to women saints than was the norm. These works and several others place the image of donatrix in close proximity to Christ - an unusual occurrence in fourteenth-century art. Women were not frequent art patrons, but circumstances did, on occasion, give them opportunity.

Art works are presented in the fullest physical context and supported for the most part by illustrations. This is best accomplished in volume one, chapter eight, on funerary chapels, and chapter nine, on Marian altarpieces. As is common in art history lecture courses, discussion of monuments is often done through comparison. This method also helps sustain the reader's interest more than the traditional chronological survey narrative. The cathedrals of Siena and Florence are discussed together, demonstrating the creative interaction and tension among artists engaged in these commissions. The richly decorated chapels of Bonifacio Lupi in the Santo, Padua, and the Baroncelli family in Santa Croce, Florence are described together and, in the process, the societies of republican Florence and seigneurial Padua are contrasted. In volume two, chapter ten, the carved reliefs on the Florence campanile are described and contrasted with Andrea Bonaiuti's fresco, The Triumph of St. Thomas Aquinas, on the west wall of the chapter house of Santa Maria Novella (now known as the Spanish Chapel). The external reliefs present knowledge as a public concern, while the Dominican fresco portrays Aquinas's synthesis of knowledge for the express utilization of the Dominican order. A large number of works are grouped in a chapter devoted to the Marian altarpiece. Featured prominently with three large color illustrations is Taddeo di Barolo's high altarpiece in the Duomo of Montepulciano (c. 1391-1401), an immensely complex and appealing work. A chapter entitled "Effigies Human and Divine" discusses a series of remarkable funerary works, including the grandiose tomb of Guido Tarlati, bishop-ruler of Arezzo.

One cannot summarize these volumes, because they themselves summarize so much. Based on a course of lectures, the essays tend to be self-contained, and there is a certain degree of repetition, especially between the two volumes. Students and other readers may find this necessary reinforcement. The focus on themes and issues, the high quality and large number of illustrations, and the concise writing should make these volumes a popular text.

SAMUEL GRUBER Syracuse University