Maginnis, Hayden B.J.

PERSONAL:

Education: University of Western Ontario, B.A.; Princeton University, M.F.A., Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Professor and writer. McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, professor of art history.

WRITINGS:

(Editor) Richard Offner, A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting: A Legacy of Attributions, Decatur House Press (Washington, DC), 1981.

(Editor) Millard Meiss, Francesco Traini, Decatur House Press (Washington, DC), 1983.

Painting in the Age of Giotto: A Historical Reevaluation, Pennsylvania State University (University Park, PA), 1997.

(Editor) Jane Immler Satkowski, Duccio di Buoninsegna: The Documents and Early Sources, Georgia Museum of Art (Athens, GA), 2000.

The World of the Early Sienese Painter, Pennsylvania State University (University Park, PA), 2001.

(With Perri Lee Roberts and Bruce Cole) Sacred Treasures: Early Italian Paintings from Southern Collections, Georgia Museum of Art (Athens, GA), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS:

As an undergraduate studying history at the University of Western Ontario, Hayden B.J. Maginnis was traveling in Italy when he first encountered a style of painting unique to the city of Siena, whose prominent artists include Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Simone Martini, and Duccio di Buoninsegna. Maginnis went on to graduate school at Princeton University and made Sienese painting the focus of his research. In addition to editing several books related to early Renaissance art, Maginnis authored two texts: Painting in the Age of Giotto: A Historical Reevaluation and The World of the Early Sienese Painter.

In Painting in the Age of Giotto, Maginnis asserts what he believes to be the key influences of the central Italian style during the thirteenth century, and debates a number of controversial issues including the authorship of various prominent works. Renaissance Quarterly reviewer Rona Goffen maintained that Maginnis "does much to redress the unbalanced treatment of Duccio [di Buoninsegna, among the most influential of Sienese artists], and his book should convert many readers to his view, restoring the Sienese painter to his proper place as a founding master of the new style."

Maginnis next focused on the city of Siena during the thirteenth and fourteenth century, researching the lives of notable Sienese painters and describing their work in the context of early Renaissance society. Martha Dunkelman wrote in a review for the Renaissance Quarterly: "Maginnis has conducted an exhaustive examination of the exceptionally extensive surviving documentary records on Sienese artists, and he presents here both the contents of the archives and insights derived from them…. Maginnis' thorough examination of the original records provides an accessible collection of basic information that will provide fundamental and reliable direction for future scholarship.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Renaissance Quarterly, spring, 1999, Rona Goffen, review of Painting in the Age of Giotto: A Historical Reevaluation, p. 207; summer, 2002, Martha Dunkelman, review of The World of the Early Sienese Painter, p. 692.

ONLINE

McMaster Courier Online,http://www.mcmaster.ca/ua/opr/courier/ (February 24, 1997), Elaine Hujer, "Professor's Trilogy Will Provide Fresh Interpretation of Painting during the Early Renaissance Period."

School of the Arts, McMaster University,http://sota.mcmaster.ca/facultystaff.html/ (April 11, 2007), profile of Maginnis.