“For three decades, Hayden Maginnis has helped shape the way historians of medieval painting consider the art of Italy. Noted for his illuminating essays, Maginnis has recently set out to produce a three-volume study of thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Sienese painting that will surely set the standard for new approaches to art history for generations to come. The first book in this series, the highly acclaimed Painting in the Age of Giotto: A Historical Reevaluation, appeared four years ago. That volume has now been followed by its sibling, The World of the Early Sienese Painter, a text that will surely receive similar praise. It is broad in scope, clearly organized, and beautifully written. In short, it is a book that will educate readers of all levels. The World of the Early Sienese Painter is brilliant, creative, and suggestive, all at precisely the right junctures and in precisely the right proportions. Readers of all levels of expertise will learn much from its methodological approach and the details that inform the core of Maginnis’s text. Remarkably, the third tome in this series promises to be the most important, as Maginnis will build upon the foundations put in place in the first two to shape new interpretations of monumental Sienese painting. If this forthcoming volume is as fresh, honest, and challenging as the first two, Maginnis will have succeeded in producing perhaps the most comprehensive and innovative study of Sienese painting in generations.”—Goerge R. Bent CAA Reviews
