A Distant City: Images of Urban Experience in the Medieval World.

A Distant City: Images of Urban Experience in the Medieval World. Frugoni, Chiara. A Distant City: Images of Urban Experience in theMedieval World. Tr. William McCuaig. Princeton: Princeton University Princeton University,at Princeton, N.J.; coeducational; chartered 1746, opened 1747, rechartered 1748, called the College of New Jersey until 1896.Schools and Research Facilities Press, 1991. Pp. xv, 206. 105 black and white plates. $35.00 (U.S.) For students of urban history, A Distant City: Images of UrbanExperience in the Medieval World, by Chiara Frugoni, will prove to be asurprise. Although its contents reflect the author's knowledge ofmedieval civic society and politics, the true nature of this book isiconography, more commonly the tool of art historians. This fact is notindicated by the title, nor is the reader made aware of it in advancesince the book contains no introduction. In the course of her narrative describing images, both literary andvisual, of the medieval city from the fourth through the fourteenthcenturies, Frugoni moves the general to the specific. Beginning in theearly chapters with an almost overwhelming number of examples of citiesas fortresses, as personified images, as churches, as people and asgeographical centres, she gradually focuses attention on Siena in thelate Middle Ages. Siena in the fourteenth century underwent a revoltagainst the old political and social order, referred to as an"urban takeoff" by Frugoni. These events resulted in a newattention to the individual and new expressions of community and civiclife. The most accessible of these tangible results of political changewas the series of frescoes painted in a hall of the Palazzo Pubblico The Palazzo Pubblico (town hall) is a palace in the city of Siena, located in the Tuscany region of Italy. Construction began in 1297 and its original purpose was to house the republican government, consisting of the Podesta and Council of Nine. byAmbrogio Lorenzetti Ambrogio Lorenzetti (or Ambruogio Laurati; c. 1290 – June 9, 1348) was an Italian painter of the Sienese school. He was active between approximately from 1317 to 1348. His elder brother was the painter Pietro Lorenzetti. in 1338-39. These works, images of Buon Governo andMal Governo (Good and Bad Government), were commissioned by the Sienesegovernment of the day; they consist of allegorical al��le��gor��i��cal? also al��le��gor��icadj.Of, characteristic of, or containing allegory: an allegorical painting of Victory leading an army. figures and panelsdepicting the practical effects of both. These frescoes have todaysuffered some minor damage (and restoration) but nevertheless remain asa very complete and beautiful cycle of late medieval painting. By far the longest chapter of the book is dedicated to a detailediconographical analysis of the Lorenzetti frescoes. In this section,Frugoni utilizes the traditional methods of art historians to relate thesources of Lorenzetti's visual images to earlier medieval art This article is about art. See also medieval architecture.Medieval art covers a vast scope of time and place, over 1000 years of art history in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. andliterature. In addition, she also explains the frescoes as reflectionsof the political situation of Siena at the time, suggesting that theyserved, among other things, as propaganda for the ruling authorities,the Nine. As such, the works emphasized the new secular concept of thecommon good but with the religious overtones which characterized earlierItalian art Italian art,works of art produced in the geographic region that now constitutes the nation of Italy. Italian art has engendered great public interest and involvement, resulting in the consistent production of monumental and spectacular works. . The detailed analysis of the Lorenzetti frescoes from Siena is initself not a new subject. These works have been frequently studied sincethe fourteenth century. In fact, in an appendix in this edition (andobviously not included in the earlier Italian edition of 1983), Frugonireplies to comments of another author who criticized her interpretationin his own article of 1986. What is of interest in A Distant City is theremarkable breadth of Frugoni's knowledge of medieval literary andvisual sources coupled with a comprehension of the social and politicalchanges which shaped urban life in fourteenth century Italy. Heremphasis is on the former. Because it deals so extensively with Siena, this book is lessgeneral than its title implies. It is particularly useful for a readerinterested in methodology, because it juxtaposes conventional arthistorical analysis with the broader tools of social history. For theurban historian, however, it offers insight into how visual images canbe seen to reflect the growth of cities in the later Middle Ages. Sarah M. McKinnon Department of History University of Winnipeg The University of Winnipeg (U of W) is a public university in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada that focuses primarily on undergraduate education. The U of W's founding colleges were Manitoba College and Wesley College, which merged to form United College in 1938.