A talk by Sandra Cardarelli.
Thursday 14th March 2019 at 7:15pm.
Massa Marittima, the cathedral of San Cerbone and the Town Hall
In the Middle-Ages, many centres of the Metal Hills, a rich mining area in Southern Tuscany, underwent economic exploitation and political dominance by the two rival cities of Pisa and Siena.
The long struggle between the two major centres for the control of Massa Marittima, one of the most important towns in the Maremma, culminated with the victory of Siena in 1335. Both Pisa and Siena left enduring traces of their supremacy in the art and architecture of Massa.
Taking the recent exhibition on Ambrogio Lorenzetti in Maremmaas a pretext, we will look at some key buildings and artworks in Massa Marittima and explore the manifold ways in which Pisa and Siena articulated their authority and influenced Massa’s life and culture. We shall see that although the dominant cities were keen to assert their authority in the area, this did not curtail Massa’s own values and cultural development, but rather enriched them.
Aberdeen Italian Circle 