This artist, also known as Matteo da Siena, was born about 1435. It was erroneously supposed, that he was the son of Giovanni di Paolo di Grazia, the painter of Poggio Malavolti, and brother of Pietro and Benvenuto di Giovanni, also painters of repute. As a matter of fact, however, Matteo’s father was a certain Giovanni di Bartolo, a merchant of Borgo San Sepolcro, who had settled in Siena, by his second wife, Elisabetta, daughter of Andrea d’Ambrogio, a goldsmith: while Pietro was the son of another merchant, one Giovanni Pucci; and Benvenuto, of a certain Giovanni di Maestro Meo del Guasta of San Quirico. Moreover, Giovanni di Paolo of Poggio was quite an old man when, in 1480, he married a woman called Domenica, by whom he had no children, as we find that by his will, dated June 29th, 1482, he left her his sole heiress. Matteo married twice; first, a certain Contessa, by whom he had no children; and secondly, Orsina di Francesco del Taia, by whom he had three sons and four daughters. He died in June, 1495. He was a distinguished painter, much admired in his day, and had a very distinct charm of his own, in spite of his somewhat rigid adherence to old traditions. Many of his pictures are still in their original places in the churches of Siena,[179] and there are also some good specimens of his work in the Accademia delle Belle Arti in that town. 24. 1473. _Giovanni di Maestro Stefano di Giovanni._ Son of the celebrated painter, usually called _Sassetta_. We first hear of him in 1452, as appealing for judgment in the matter of the price of a fresco, over the Porta Romana, left unfinished by his father’s death; (subsequently completed by Sano di Pietro, and Lorenzo di Pietro, commonly called _Il Vecchietta_). In August 1446, he was commissioned, with the assistance of the goldsmith Francesco d’Antonio, to make a silver head of Sta. Caterina, for the Monks of S. Domenico in Siena.[180] He made a model for the head, which Francesco executed in silver;[181] and perhaps the tabernacle also, although that has been attributed to Vecchietta. In 1466–68,[182] we find a petition, addressed to the Signoria, for the erection of two stone wolves outside the Porta Nuova, or Romana. These are generally supposed to have been the work of this artist. In 1477, he was recommended by the Signoria of Siena to Federigo, Duke of Urbino; and in 1481, was witness to the commission, given by the Opera del Duomo, to Urbano di Pietro, Antonio Federighi, Vito di Marco and Luigi di Ruggiero, to execute the Sibyls on the Duomo Pavement; one of which (the _Cuman_) we know was, in the following year, his work. In 1487, he executed the statue of S. Ansano (formerly attributed to Neroccio di Bartolommeo Landi, of whom presently) in the Chapel of S. Giovanni in the Duomo.[183] In 1427, in company with Giacomo Cozzarelli, and Domenico di Matteo, he made a valuation of the bronze doors, for the Libreria in the Duomo, executed