A Blockbuster Met Exhibition Takes Visitors Back to Siena to Trace the Origins of European Painting

A tremendous poster greets visitors to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Advertising the show of the season, “Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350,” the poster features a detail from the Raising of Lazarus (1310–11) by Duccio di Buoninsegna, founder of the Sienese school. It shows Christ, surrounded by a crowd, raising his extended arm. If you are familiar with the uncropped painting, you realize that on the right should appear Lazarus in his tomb, eyes now open, co