Calendar

In his work Un punto di approdo (A month in Siena), Hisham Matar describes his growing love for Siena, which began at the National Gallery in London, where he admired the works of Duccio and Sassetta – a splendid “anomaly between chapters” in the history of art – and culminated in numerous fascinating walks, from the “nutshell” that is Piazza del Campo and as far as the point where the city – beyond its ancient walls – meanders into the surrounding hills. He will talk with Chiara Frugoni, whose latest book Paradiso vista Inferno, recounts the political history of medieval Siena as shown by Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s frescoes in the Sala dei Nove. Two different approaches describing the same city using a method of observation which goes beyond the painted surfaces of the walls to depict human life in the city.

Chiara Frugoni
Chiara Frugoni was born in Pisa, and after graduating continued her studies at the Scuola Normale Superiore. She lectured in medieval history at the Universities of Pisa, Roma II and Paris. Her numerous essays include Francesco e l’invenzione delle stimmate (1993 – which won the Viareggio prize in 1994), Medioevo sul naso. Occhiali, bottoni e altre invenzioni medievali (2001 and 2018), L’affare migliore di Enrico. Giotto e gli affreschi della Cappella Scrovegni (2008 and 2017), Quale Francesco? Il messaggio nascosto negli affreschi della Basilica superiore ad Assisi (2015), Vivere nel Medioevo. Donne, uomini e soprattutto bambini (2017), Uomini e animali nel Medioevo. Storie fantastiche e feroci (2018), Paradiso vista Inferno. Buon governo e tirannide nel Medioevo di Ambrogio Lorenzetti (2019).

Fulvio Dell’Agnese
Art historian Fulvio Dell’Agnese graduated and specialized at the Universities of Venice and Siena. His research projects focus mainly on the different possibilities of dialogue between literature and the visual arts and between artistic creativity and the environmental context. With this in mind, he sees research into the Venetian and Friulian frescoes of the XV and XVI centuries, the murals of the 1900s, and the installations created by contemporary art.