Sienese art in full flower

Every summer visitors flock to Siena to admire the city’s medieval cobbled streets and squares, its astounding artworks, and experience the thrill of its Palio horse races.

The Italian department has organised a series of five public lectures exploring the art and culture of this fascinating Tuscan city, which accompany the opening of a major international exhibition at London’s National Gallery on 24 October.

‘Renaissance Siena: Art for a City’ will bring together many Sienese paintings, sculptures, manuscripts and ceramics (1460 to 1530) never seen before in Britain - some combining exquisite gold leaf with breathtaking colour.

The lectures at Leeds will offer informative insights into the elegant, expressive qualities of these artworks, and how the city itself was shaped as a living work of art.

Wed, 24 October: Stephen Milner: ‘The city as a work of art: Making and meaning in the Italian Renaissance’, 6pm.

Wed, 31 October: Matthew Treherne: ‘Duccio and the flowering of Sienese art’, 6pm.

Wed, 14 November: Richard Andrews:‘Theatre in Renaissance Siena’, 6pm.

Wed, 21 November: Luke Syson (curator at National Gallery London): ‘Renaissance Siena: Art for a city’, starts at 6pm.

Wed, 28 November: Philippa Jackson: ‘Art, power and patronage in Renaissance Siena’, starts at 6pm.

All of the lectures will be held in the Yorkshire Bank lecture theatre, Leeds University Business School, Clarendon Road. For details visit www.leeds.ac.uk/italian/research/sienalectures.htm

Photo: Matteo di Giovanni, Virgin Annunciate (1474), Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design