The Story of Siena and San GimignanoGardner, Edmund G.
History
The Story of Siena and San Gimignano
Gardner, Edmund G.
Art -- Italy -- Siena; San Gimignano (Italy) -- History; Siena (Italy) -- History
There is an analogous picture by Sano in Stanza V., San Bernardino (2)
as champion of the devotion of the Holy Name, as the inscription, "I
have manifested Thy Name to men," indicates. Painted in 1460, sixteen
years after the Saint's death, it is less a contemporary portrait than
that by Lorenzo di Pietro. All the other pictures in this room are in
Sano's usual mystical style. There is an interval of thirty years
between the date of the Madonna of San Biagio (4), the saintly Bishop
whose miracles and martyrdom are so quaintly depicted in the predella,
and that of the Assumption (8, 9); but there is little, if any, advance
in technique or development in style. But no sympathetic student of
Sienese painting can ever find Sano di Pietro monotonous, or otherwise
than fascinating.
In Stanza VI., a picture by Sano di Pietro (2) in the composition of the
principal scene--the Madonna and Child surrounded by kneeling
Saints--shows a certain resemblance to Fra Angelico. In the Crucifixion
above, St Francis is receiving the stigmata, and two Franciscan nuns are
aiding the holy women to tend the Blessed Virgin; the predella, however,
is by a later hand. The chief contents of this room are the works of
Matteo di Giovanni, on the whole the most powerful and most versatile
Sienese painter of the fifteenth century, and Neroccio di Bartolommeo
Landi, a "Simone come to life again" in the air of the Renaissance.[65]
By the former are three beautiful Madonnas (5, 7, 9), somewhat varied in
type and style. By the latter, whose figures are stately and gracious
like those of his statues, very sweet and winning in expression, are the
large enthroned Madonna and Saints (8); four smaller pictures (11, 13,
14, 22), in two of which no one can fail to be struck with the painter's
exquisite realisation of the personality of St Catherine; and the signed
and dated Madonna and Child of 1476, with St Michael and San Bernardino
(19), one of the master's earlier works. Francesco di Giorgio Martini is
represented by three very small pictures (15, 16, 17) of Old Testament
scenes, an Annunciation (21), and three Madonnas (20, 23, 24). We have
also some interesting works by lesser masters. By Pietro di Domenico
(1457-1501), who was influenced by the Umbrians, is the Adoration of the
Shepherds with St Galganus and St Martin (3), the Galganus having struck
his sword into the rock at the Divine Child's feet; the date seems to
read 1400, only because the latter part has been obliterated. By
Guidoccio Cozzarelli (1450-1516) are a Saint Sebastian (25) and Our Lady
as protector of the Arts (29), the Queen of the Artisans.
Stanza VII. contains unimportant fragments and engravings.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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