The ''Annunciation with St. Margaret and St. Ansanus'' is a painting by the Italian Gothic artists

Simone Martini Simone Martini ( – 1344) was an Italian painter born in Siena. He was a major figure in the development of early Italian painting and greatly influenced the development of the International Gothic style. It is thought that Martini was a pupil ...

and

Lippo Memmi Lippo Memmi (c. 1291 – 1356) was an Italian painter from Siena. He was the foremost follower of Simone Martini, who was his brother-in-law. Together with Martini, in 1333 he painted what is regarded as one of the masterworks of the Intern ...

, now housed in the

Uffizi Gallery The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums ...

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. It is a wooden

triptych A triptych ( ; from the Greek adjective ''τρίπτυχον'' "''triptukhon''" ("three-fold"), from ''tri'', i.e., "three" and ''ptysso'', i.e., "to fold" or ''ptyx'', i.e., "fold") is a work of art (usually a panel painting) that is divided ...

painted in tempera and gold, with a central panel having double size. Considered Martini's masterwork and one of the most outstanding works of Gothic painting, the work was originally painted for a side altar in the

Siena Cathedral Siena Cathedral ( it, Duomo di Siena) is a medieval church in Siena, Italy, dedicated from its earliest days as a Roman Catholic Marian church, and now dedicated to the Assumption of Mary. It was the episcopal seat of the Diocese of Siena, and ...

History

The painting originally decorated the altar of St. Ansanus in the Cathedral of Siena, and had been commissioned as part of a cycle of four altarpieces dedicated to the city's patrons saints ( St. Ansanus,

St. Sabinus of Spoleto :''for other saints called Sabinus, see Sabinus (disambiguation)'' Saint Sabinus of Spoleto (died c. 300) was a bishop in the Christian church who resisted the Diocletianic Persecution and was martyred. According to legend, Venustian, governor of ...

, St. Crescentius and St. Victor) during 1330–1350. These included the '' Presentation at the Temple'' by

Ambrogio Lorenzetti Ambrogio Lorenzetti (; – 9 June 1348) or Ambruogio Laurati was an Italian painter of the Sienese school. He was active from approximately 1317 to 1348. He painted '' The Allegory of Good and Bad Government'' in the Sala dei Nove (Salon of Nin ...

(altar of St. Crescentius, 1342), the '' Nativity of the Virgin'' by

Pietro Lorenzetti Pietro Lorenzetti (; – 1348) or Pietro Laurati was an Italian painter, active between c. 1306 and 1345. Together with his younger brother Ambrogio, he introduced naturalism into Sienese art. In their artistry and experiments with three-dimen ...

(1342, Altar of St. Sabinus), and a ''Nativity'', now disassembled, attributed to Bartolomeo Bulgarini from 1351 (altar of St. Victor). All the paintings should represent stories of the Life of the Madonna, and were crowned by

Duccio di Buoninsegna Duccio di Buoninsegna ( , ; – ) was an Italian painter active in Siena, Tuscany, in the late 13th and early 14th century. He was hired throughout his life to complete many important works in government and religious buildings around Italy. Ducc ...

's ''

Maestà Maestà , the Italian word for "majesty", designates a classification of images of the enthroned Madonna with the child Jesus, the designation generally implying accompaniment by angels, saints, or both. The ''Maestà'' is an extension of the "Se ...

''. The artists' use of expensive lacquer, extensive gold leafing and the difficult to obtain lapis lazuli in the painting demonstrates the communal prestige of the commission. Simone Martini 078

The date of the painting is specified in a fragment of the original frame, now embedded in the 19th-century renovation. It lists the name of Simone Martini and his brother-in-law Lippo Memmi (), although it is unknown which parts they executed. A hypothesis is that Martini painted the central panel, while Memmi was responsible for the side saints and the tondoes with prophets in the upper part. The work, in both size and style, has no similarities with any other contemporary painting in Italy. It can be compared instead to French illuminated manuscripts of that time, as well as to paintings from Germany or England. His "northern European" style granted Martini a call from the papal court in Avignon, where there were Italian but no Florentine painters, as the Giottesque classical manner was met with little interest by the Gothic culture of the area. The painting remained in the cathedral until 1799, when Grand Duke Peter Leopold had it moved to Florence in exchange of two canvasses by

Luca Giordano Luca Giordano (18 October 1634 – 3 January 1705) was an Italian late-Baroque painter and printmaker in etching. Fluent and decorative, he worked successfully in Naples and Rome, Florence, and Venice, before spending a decade in Spain. Earl ...

. The original frame, carved by Paolo di Camporegio and gilt by Memmi, was renovated in 1420 and replaced by a modern one in the 19th century.

Description

The work is composed of a large central panel depicting the '' Annunciation'', and two side panels with St.

Ansanus Saint Ansanus ( it, Sant'Ansano) (died 304 AD), called ''The Baptizer'' or ''The Apostle of Siena'', is the patron saint of Siena, a scion of the Anician family of Rome. Legend His legend states that he was born of a noble Roman family in the ...

(left), and female saint, generarally identified with St. MaximaPage at Florence museums website
/ref> or St. Margaret, in the right, and four tondos in the cusps: Jeremiah, Ezechiel, Isiah and Daniel. Simone Martini 080

The ''Annunciation'' shows the archangel Gabriel entering the house of the Virgin Mary to tell her that she will soon bear the child Jesus, whose name means "savior". Gabriel holds an olive branch in his hand, a traditional symbol of peace, while pointing at the Holy Ghost's dove with the other. The dove is descending from heaven, from the center of the mandorla of eight angels above, about to enter the Virgin's right ear. In fact, along the path of the dove, viewers see Gabriel's utterance: ("Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee."). The angel's mantle shows a detailed "tartar cloth" pattern and fine gilt feathers. Mary, sitting on a throne, is portrayed at the moment that she is startled out of her reading, reacting with a graceful and composed reluctance, looking with surprise at the celestial messenger. Her dress has an arabesque-like pattern. At the sides, the two patrons saints of the cathedral are separated by the central scene by two decorate twisting columns. The background, completely gilt, has a vase of lilies, an allegory of purity often associated to the Virgin Mary. The use of a Gothic line, plus such realistic elements as the book, the vase, the throne, the pavement in perspective, the realistic action of the two figures and their subtle nuances of character are a substantial detachment from the bi-dimensionality typical of

Byzantine art Byzantine art comprises the body of Christian Greek artistic products of the Eastern Roman Empire, as well as the nations and states that inherited culturally from the empire. Though the empire itself emerged from the decline of Rome and lasted u ...

References

Notes

General references

External links

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