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Perhaps Lorenzetti's most ambitious work is the Passion fresco cycle in the left transept of the Lower Church of San Francesco in Assisi. These seventeen well-preserved frescoes – the highpoint of his early career – show "the influence of Giotto's monumentality, the impulse of Pisano, thirteenth century Expressionism ... and the teachings of Duccio". The conditions for the execution of the frescoes must have been difficult as very little natural light would be available and the lower church would be near darkness. The exact timeline of the frescoes is in question; some scholars have believed that the cycle was painted in sections over several years as the style had some similarities to Lorenzetti's Carmelite Altarpiece (commissioned in 1429). The reasons are varied, from painting only in the dry season to the bloody skirmishes in the area at the time. The more recent technical and stylistic evidence presented by Maginnis poses strong arguments that Lorenzetti's Passion Cycle was completed in one campaign between the years 1316 or 1317 and 1319. |
Believed to be one of his earliest works is the Madonna and Child with Saints Francis and John the Baptist, in the chapel of Saint John the Baptist. According to Maginnis the "finest and most complete realization of the ambition to conjoin real and painted space was left to Pietro Lorenzetti, working in the left transept. There, his well-known fictive altar-piece is, in reality, much more." |
Lorenzetti's fresco cycle begins with the Entry into Jerusalem, the Last Supper, the Washing of the Feet, the Capture of Christ, the Flagellation and the Way to Calvary. As usual with frescoes, these first scenes were painted beginning at the top of the vaulted roof and working to the bottom so as to avoid dripping from above onto a freshly painted scene. |
The Last Supper has Christ and his disciples seated around an awkwardly angled table within a refulgent rotunda under a night sky festooned with shooting stars and a crescent moon. To the left of the holy diners is a narrow kitchen and in it is a man doing dishes, a woman at his shoulder, a dog licking the last scraps from a plate, and a cat asleep. Into this apparently mundane scene, Lorenzetti surprises with an innovation, for the pets and plates cast definite shadows at angles determined by their relation to the fire. |
Two scenes on the end wall, the Deposition from the Cross and the Deposition in the Tomb, show the mourners lovingly removing Christ from the cross and placing, with slow measured movements, his lifeless body in the tomb. This demonstrates Lorenzetti's technical ability and maturity, resembling Giotto's use of naturalistic human emotions. |
The Suicide of Judas is painted on the facing wall, at the corner between the entrance to the transept at the top of the stairs, where it is painted as to appear part of the architecture of the transept. This is the only fresco with an inscription (scariotas). |
In front of the Crucifixion is the Stigmata of Saint Francis. The portrayal of the life of Saint Francis appears in the nave of the church, suggesting a parallel between the life of Christ and that of Francis. Lorenzetti carries the idea further by placing Saint Francis next to the Capture of Christ, replacing the Agony in the Garden from the original Passion story with a scene of the Saint. |
The upper scenes on the same wall and the final two stories of the Passion cycle, the Descent of Christ to Limbo and the Resurrection are horn-shaped in a small difficult space. The two scenes represent examples of similar styles to the first six scenes, especially the face of Christ. |
The Madonna dei Tramonti ("Madonna of the Sunsets") below the Crucifixion in a painted frame shows the Madonna and Child, Saint John the Evangelist, and Saint Francis. Mary has a unique gesture, holding her thumb up pointing back to Saint Francis, raising his hand to accept his calling. |
The last image of Lozenzetti's Assisi frescoes, portraits of Saints Rufinus of Assisi, Catherine of Alexandria, Clare of Assisi, and Margaret the Virgin, appear above a bench with an artistic illusion, appearing three-dimensional. The end of the bench casts a shadow following the form of the painted moldings. There is only one light source and the painted shadow appears to be cast by it. |
Monticchiello Altarpiece |
The Monticchiello Altarpiece is a hypothetical altarpiece of c. 1315 for the parish church of Santi Leonardo e Cristoforo in Monticchiello, Tuscany. It is thought to have consisted of the Monticchiello Madonna (Diocesan Museum of Pienza), Saint Margaret or Saint Agatha (Musée de Tessé, Le Mans) and Saint Leonard or Benedict, Saint Catherine of Alexandria and Saint Agatha or Saint Margaret (Museo Horne, Florence). |
Arezzo Polyptych |
The gilded three-story altarpiece, the Arezzo (or Aretine or Tarlati) Polyptych, was commissioned in 1320 by Bishop Guido Tarlati for the Santa Maria della Pieve in Arezzo. At its centre is the Madonna (draped in a magnificent ermine-lined robe) and Child, flanked by the saints John the Evangelist, John the Baptist, Matthew, and Donatus (Arezzo's patron saint, martyred in 361 CE). The rich colours, graceful lines, decorative detail, and supple figures (suggestive of Martini's influence), endow the piece with "a vivacity rare in contemporary Sienese art". |
The polyptych is Lorenzetti's first dated work (c. 1320–1324) and one of only four with verifiable documentation including the Carmelite Altarpiece, the Uffizi Madonna, and the Birth of the Virgin. "The dating has allowed scholars to identify with precision a specific stage of the painter's activity and style." |
Carmelite Altarpiece |
The Carmelite Altarpiece was a polyptych commissioned in 1329 for the friars of the Carmelite Order. It consisted of a central panel depicting the Madonna and Child with Saint Nicholas and Elijah. The side panels displayed Saints Agnes, John the Baptist, and Catherine, and Elisha. The predella below comprised five narrative paintings. Instead of taking their subject from the Bible, these five paintings show events from the history of the Carmelite Order. A striking feature of the overall design is the broad central panel of the predella, which allowed the painter to depict the consignment of the Carmelite rule in the early thirteenth century in a particularly detailed manner. The significance of Elijah in the Carmelite altarpiece is that he was held to be the founder of the Carmelite order. For the Carmelite friars Elijah is the most significant saint besides the Virgin. The Carmelite altarpiece's illusion of three-dimensional forms marks a new phase in Lorenzetti's style. |
The Carmelite altarpiece was sold in 1818 and subsequently lost. It was found when the Asano Madonna was restored to its original state, revealing Lorenzetti's altarpiece underneath. Two clues to restorers that the Asano Madonna was in fact the Carmelite altarpiece were the uncovering of Elijah hidden under a later rendering of Saint Anthony for the Asano order<--no sign of any order of that name-->, and the Carmelite colors of the costumes worn by the painted figures. The panel is signed and dated on the step of the throne: PETRUS LAURENTII ME PINXIT ANNO DOMINI MCCCXXVIII. |
Birth of the Virgin |
Lorenzetti's last major work (1342) was a triptych altarpiece, the Birth of the Virgin, commissioned for Siena Cathedral. This painting in tempera on panel, like many Sienese paintings of the time, celebrates the life of the Virgin, the city's patron saint. |
The Birth of the Virgin was the third painting in a series completed for Siena Cathedral, beginning with Duccio's Maestà and including Simone Martini's Annunciation. Duccio, Simone, and Pietro were all members of the Sienese School. Duccio's high altarpiece, the Maestà, was commissioned in 1308. According to Timothy Hyman, the Maestà was "part of the Commune's wider programme to promote and strengthen Siena's civic identity". The central panel of the Maestà honors the Virgin through the depiction of The Virgin and Christ Enthroned in Majesty with Angels and Saints. As Hyman writes, if a viewer compares Duccio's Maestà with Pietro's Birth of the Virgin, one can "...recognize Pietro's colour-world as startlingly different: dense, saturated, opaque, planar". |
Martini's Annunciation was completed in 1333 and displayed beside Duccio's Maestà. Again, the Virgin is glorified in Martini's altarpiece, which depicts the Annunciation, or the angel Gabriel's announcement to the Virgin Mary that she will become the mother of Jesus. As Hyman states when comparing Duccio's Maestà with Simone's Annunciation, "Simone's blue-mantled figure silhouetted against the gold was both an echo and a rupture; the still icon transformed into narrative, the hieratic divinity swept up into dramatic action." |
While Duccio's Maestà and Simone's Annunciation were displayed behind the choir screen, Pietro's Birth of the Virgin was on view in the central part of Siena Cathedral. In contrast to Duccio's regal depiction of the Virgin in the Maestà, and Simone's Annunciation with a scene that appears supernatural, the Birth of the Virgin is notable for Pietro's representation of the Virgin in a corporeal setting. In this scene, a bath is being poured for the Virgin, midwives attend Saint Anne, who lounges on a plaid blanket-covered bed, and an expectant father awaits news of the birth. The figures are modeled and solid. Although the holy persons are signified with crowns of light, they appear otherwise terrestrial. If not for their crowns of light, and Saint Anne's unnaturally large body, this painting could be interpreted as a genre painting depicting the everyday lives of ordinary people. If one compares this intimate household scene adorned with richly colored textiles to the gold groundwork that creates an otherworldly effect in Simone's Annunciation, one quickly notices that Pietro has created a more accessible Virgin. A small panel in the Abegg-Stiftung, Riggisberg, which has been attributed to either Pietro or Ambrogio Lorenzetti, similarly depicts the Holy Family in a domestic setting with Mary engaged in needlework or knitting, the Christ Child clinging to her and Joseph beside them and a plaid cover on a bed in the left side chamber. |
Perhaps one of the most extraordinary qualities of Birth of the Virgin is Pietro's use of spatial illusion. It is likely that Pietro was influenced by the work of his brother, Ambrogio Lorenzetti. As Keith Christiansen states, "the key impetus to his experiments with centralized spatial projection was doubtless his collaboration with Ambrogio, with whom he shared workshop materials". Pietro creates a seamless architectural world with the integration of the frame and picture plane. The vertical columns and bed frame running parallel to the picture plane create a planar composition. In addition, Pietro's rendering of the vaulted ceilings adds dimension to the rooms and encloses this intimate scene. Depth is further generated in the left panel of the triptych, as the viewer peers outside the waiting room to see a nearby building. As Hyman affirms, the "[Birth of the Virgin] reads both as a triptych ... and as a deep, unified space—the most convincing interior space of the entire fourteenth century." |
Pietro's innovative use of spatial illusion in the Birth of the Virgin solidifies his place amongst the great masters of trecento Sienese art such as Duccio di Buonisegna, Ambrogio Lorenzetti, and Simone Martini. |
References and sources |
References |
Sources |
Giorgio Vasari includes a biography of Lorenzetti in his Lives. |
External links |
Carl Brandon Strehlke, "Virgin and Child Enthroned and a Servite Friar, with Angels by Pietro Lorenzetti (cat. 91;EW1985-21-1,2" in The John G. Johnson Collection: A History and Selected Works, a Philadelphia Museum of Art free digital publication. |
Pietro Lorenzetti at the Web Gallery of Art |
Pietro Lorenzetti at Panopticon Virtual Art Gallery |
Pietro Paolo Bonzi (c. 1576–1636), also known as il Gobbo dei Carracci (hunchback of the Carracci) or il Gobbo dei Frutti (of fruits), was an Italian painter, best known for his landscapes and still-lifes. A cartoon of the painter shows his highly deformed lordotic posture. |
He was born in Cortona, was part of the circle of Annibale Carracci and Domenichino, and trained under Giovanni Battista Viola in Rome. In Rome, he worked for Cardinal Pier Paolo Crescenzi. There are only two still-life paintings known with his signature; he thus was one of the first Italian artists in Rome working in this style. The Giustiniani inventories of 1638 cite paintings by Bonzi, and other still-lifes are documented in the 1670 inventory of Principe Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna's collection. He also worked in fresco and in 1622-23 worked with Pietro da Cortona on the ceiling of a gallery in the Palazzo Mattei di Giove. Other commissions cited by Baglione include his work in the Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi. |
Works |
Fruits, Vegetables and a Butterfly (1620), private collection |
Italianate River Landscape, private collection |
Landscape with Shepherds and Sheep, Pinacoteca Capitolina, Rome |
At the Louvre, Paris: |
Landscape with a Dog |
Diana and the Nymph Callisto, Palazzo Pitti, Florence |
Notes |
References |
Bryan, Michael (1886). Robert Edmund Graves (ed.). Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, Biographical and Critical. Vol. I: A-K. London: George Bell and Sons. p. 158. |
"A Pair of Landscape Paintings by Giovanni Battista Viola," Richard E. Spear, The Burlington Magazine (1993) p. 762-764. |
Rudolf Wittkower, Arts and Architecture in Italy: 1600-1750 |
External links |
Web Gallery of Art Biography. |
Pietro Testa (1611–1650) was an Italian High Baroque artist active in Rome. He is best known as a printmaker and draftsman. |
Biography |
He was born in Lucca, and thus is sometimes called il Lucchesino. He moved to Rome early in life. One source states he was ejected from the Cortona studio in 1631, soon after joining the workshop. Others state Testa trained under Pietro Paolini or under Domenichino, for whom he worked under the patronage of Cassiano dal Pozzo. He was friends with Nicolas Poussin and Francesco Mola. |
Some of his etchings, which often include work in drypoint, have a fantastic quality reminiscent of Jacques Callot, or embellishments of his Genoese contemporary Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione and even presciently suggest William Blake. His Sacrifice of Iphigenia appears to have influenced Tiepolo's rendition at Villa Valmarana Ai Nani in Vicenza. His early prints, from the 1630s, were often religious and were influenced by Federico Barocci. These achieve very delicate effects of light; his later ones became harder and more austere in style, as he attempted a personal version of neo-classicism, under the influence of the Carracci. Many of his later subjects were original classical subjects, the most ambitious reflecting his personal struggles. His prints were successful and frequently copied. |
Between 1638 and 1644, Testa completed what is perhaps his most important work, a set of complex and highly detailed etchings on the theme of The Seasons, which served as an expression of his interest in Platonic philosophy. Sympathetic contemporaries considered these his "finest and most important works." |
Testa was influenced by Leonardo da Vinci to favor direct observation of natural phenomena, a fact that may have limited his productivity as an artist and might even have caused his death. Accounts of Testa's death are confused and contradictory, some suggesting murder or suicide. Testa was described as melancholic in temperament; his difficult personality caused problematic dealings with his patrons such as Niccolò Simonelli, and a series of projects had ended in frustration. Yet his earliest biographer, the 17th-century author Filippo Baldinucci, indicates that the death was accidental. Commenting on Testa's habit of "depicting night scenes and changes in the atmosphere and in the sky," Baldinucci states that Testa was standing on a Tiber riverbank, "drawing and observing some reflections of the rainbow in the water," when he fell in and drowned. |
Some works |
Garden of Venus & Sacrifice of Iphigenia [1] |
Sacrifice of Isaac [2] |
Alcibiades Interrupts Socrates' Symposium [3] |
Return of the Prodigal Son [4] |
Nymphs and Satyrs in a Landscape [5] |
Notes |
Sources |
Cropper, Elizabeth. The Ideal of Painting: Pietro Testa's Düsseldorf Notebook. Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1984. |
Cropper, Elizabeth, ed. Pietro Testa, 1612-1650: Prints and Drawings. Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1988. |
Freedberg, Sydney J. Painting in Italy: 1500 to 1600 (The Pelican History of Art). New York, Penguin, 1979. |
Gage, John. Color and Culture: Practice and Meaning From Antiquity to Abstraction. Boston, Little, Brown & Co., 1993. |
Kammen, Michael G. Time to Every Purpose: The Four Seasons in American Culture. Chapel Hill, NC, University of North Carolina Press, 2004. |
Wittkower, Rudolf. Art and Architecture in Italy: 1600 to 1750 (The Pelican History of Art). New York, Viking, 1973. |
External links |
good selection of etchings (and copies etc) from San Francisco |
Two etchings from the MMA |
Two etchings at the Art Museum of Estonia |
Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (25 January 1708 – 4 February 1787) was an Italian painter who displayed a solid technical knowledge in his portrait work and in his numerous allegorical and mythological pictures. The high number of foreign visitors travelling throughout Italy and reaching Rome during their "Grand Tour" led the artist to specialize in portraits. |
Batoni won international fame largely thanks to his customers, mostly British of noble origin, whom he portrayed, often with famous Italian landscapes in the background. Such Grand Tour portraits by Batoni were in British private collections, thus ensuring the genre's popularity in Great Britain. One generation later, Sir Joshua Reynolds would take up this tradition and become the leading English portrait painter. Although Batoni was considered the best Italian painter of his time, contemporary chronicles mention his rivalry with Anton Raphael Mengs. |
In addition to art-loving nobility, Batoni's subjects included the kings and queens of Poland, Portugal, and Prussia; the Holy Roman Emperors Joseph II and Leopold II (a fact which earned him noble dignity); the popes Benedict XIV, Clement XIII, and Pius VI, Elector Karl Theodor of Bavaria; and many more. He also received numerous commissions for altarpieces for churches (in Rome, Brescia, Lucca and Parma, for example) as well as for mythological and allegorical subjects. |
Batoni's style took inspiration and incorporated elements of classical antiquity, French Rococo, Bolognese classicism, and the work of artists such as Nicolas Poussin, Claude Lorrain, and especially Raphael. As such, Pompeo Batoni is considered a precursor of Neoclassicism. |
Biography |
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