"Siena is the birthplace of a painting tradition that was to prove crucial to the history of Western art. From the 13th to the 15th century, artists developed a new language and marked a major evolution in representing the human figure and of space, architecture and nature. The gothic style, characterized by elegance in form and precision, rapidly took hold. Byzantine art bequeathed an extremely sophisticated sensitivity to colour and a predilection for narration. Master painters such as Duccio, Simone Martini, the Lorenzetti brothers, Sassetta, Sano di Pietro, Giovanni di Paolo and others invented a different kind of storytelling and iconographic models. Unlike Florence and the Italian Renaissance in general, the school of Siena unquestionably gave birth to a new ars narrandi. This richly illustrated publication presents masterpieces from the Pinacoteca Nazionale of Siena on display at the Centre for Fine Arts (BOZAR) in Brussels and at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rouen."--Back cover.