The Miracle of the Grain Ships

detail from "The Miracle of the Grain Ships"

Florentines faced shortages wheat in 1332. If you look into Lorenzetti's maritime scene, you clearly see the faces of the sailors. Humanization is one of the themes of "Siena: The Rise of Painting 1300-1350" at the Met. What were the sailors in this detail from the panel thinking? Were they eager to satiate their stomachs or simply anticipating praise. Remember the burghers on the shore in Vermeer's "View of Delft?" How far away but at the same time near to these early inklings of personhood in painting! Freed from the constraints and uniformity of convention the Sienese painters of the early Renaissance, Duccio, Martini, Ambrogio and Pietro Lorenzetti explored character and individuality. What will happen when the boats arrive? Is that where the story begins or ends? Yet to the contemporary eye, what makes these paintings compelling is the sincerity and the lack of irony. Devotion and belief are still the modus operandi. Hope springs eternal.

and listen to "Dance With My Father" by Luther Vandross