Simone Martini Biography

The master of the Sienna School, Martini was a follower and, possibly, a student of Duccio Di Bioinseni, experienced the influence of the painting of the French Gothic. The rising cloak of the angel and his huge open wings indicate that the Archangel had just appeared here. The words of the greetings with which the angel addresses Madonna are inscribed on a gold background, as if they were coming from his lips.

Maria, frightened by the news brought by Gabriel, slightly turned away from him and picks up her cloak with her hand, as if defending herself from the confusion that has gripped her. White lilies and the book held by Madonna - these traditional attributes of the Annunciation scene are interpreted by a master with an unusual realism for that time. The grace of figures and the precious radiance of the colors of the picture make it one of the most advanced samples of late Gothic art.

Martini Simone performed work for the most influential and enlightened customers of his time, for the Government of Siena, the poet of Petrarch and for King Robert Neapolitan. Already with this, she acquired a more secular and ceremonial character; In the sense of its composition, it was also distinguished by more spatial and freedom, which, however, in a whimsical way were combined in the works of Simon with a flat decorative beginning.

In this fresco, all the figures, starting with the Madonna, are marked with the features of Gothic grace and elegance, to some extent reflecting the features of knightly life, to which Simone Martini experienced great interest. Female images acquire a much greater softness and poetic spirituality in the interpretation of the Sienna master; In addition, they have more volume than Duccio figures.

The bizarre mixture of northern medieval forms borrowed from the French book miniature, and the realistic principle that penetrated Siena painting after Giotto, was reflected in the fresco of Simon Martini, which was also performed by him for the Siena Hall of Hall, depicting the commander Gvidorichio and Folyano, which was riding on a horse. In addition to the fact that an attempt was made here, however, still conditional, but with hints of the prospect of the landscape-red hills with feudal locks and fortresses against the backdrop of the blue sky-this fresco is important because one of the first portraits in the art of Trechento was created, which expressed not yet individual, but generalized traits of condotier.

This horseman in a robe, decorated with a pattern of rhombuses, the same as the Cheprak of his horse is adorned - is the prototype of numerous horse monuments performed in the sculpture and in painting by Italian masters of the 15th century. The ethereal figure of the Madonna, draped into a dark blue cloak that distinguishes her elegant silhouette on a gold background, is represented in a spectacular emotional and color contrast with a figure of a light angel standing in front of her with large patterned wings.

In the center between the figures, a golden faceted vase with high lilies is placed. On the side sashes of the composition are saints. Feelled by subtle lyricism, this work with its delicate sonorous colors and a smooth melody of lines that create flexible contours of figures characterizes the creative heyday of the master. The charm of his female images was close in spirit to Petrarch’s poetry, and it was no coincidence that Simon Martini instructed the poet to fulfill the portrait of his immortal lover Laura.

For the Sients, Simone Martini was the most beloved artist who inherited the best that he had, but had liberated Siena painting from the oppression of Byzantine traditions and gave her a secular shade, beauty, decorative expressiveness - qualities that his contemporaries should be liked. Simone Martini also worked in Assisi, where he participated in the paintings of the lower church of San Francesco.

Of the Assisian frescoes preserved by him, a fragment with the image of musicians from the composition “Dedication of St. Martin in the Knights” is very beautiful. The art of Simone Martini is especially far from the Florentine version of Trechento. The painter is inherent in the subtlest spirituality, often so exalted that it is, as it were, cleared of specific human emotions. Working in Avignon, Martini got closer to Francesco Petrarch, performed a portrait of Laura for him and the front -script to the Virgil’s manuscript Library Ambrosiana, Milan.

The art of Simone Martini served as a model for numerous imitations, gaining fame in other cities of Italy and medieval Europe, however, in the formation of the art of revival, it played a slight role, since it did not contain those fundamentally new artistic reforms that were necessary to create a new, realistic style.