Guido of Siena, was an Italian painter, active during the 13th-century in
Siena
Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.
The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centur ...
, and painting in an
Italo-Byzantine style.
Biography
The name Guido is known from the large panel in the church of
San Domenico, Siena of th
''Virgin and Child Enthroned'' The rhymed
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
inscription gives the painter's name as ''Guido de Senis'', with the date 1221. However, this date cannot relate to the painting of the panel, which is usually dated on the basis of style to the 1270s. The faces of the Virgin and Child were scraped and repainted in the early 14th century in the manner of
Duccio
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 ...
and so are not representative of Guido's original. A
dossal
A Dossal (or dossel, dorsel, dosel), from French ''dos'' (''back''), is one of a number of terms for something rising from the back of a church altar. In modern usage, it primarily refers to cloth hangings but it can also denote a board, ofte ...
featuring the Virgin and Child with four saints (accession No. 7) in the
Siena Pinacoteca has an identical inscription, but unfortunately the name before "de Senis" has been cut off. It is very often assumed that the missing name is Guido, and gives us some indication of the original appearance of the Madonna at San Domenico.
Beyond this, little is known of Guido da Siena and his place in Sienese painting before Duccio. Because he is the only Sienese painter of the time to have surviving works on panel with a signature, he is often viewed as the most important artistic personality at the time and the first master of the great Sienese school of painting. However, Bellosi has attempted to associate some "Guidesque" works with the names ''Dietsalvi di Speme'' and ''Guido di Graziano'', who are documented with the painting of
Biccherna The Biccherna was the magistrate or chancellery of finance from the 13th to the 14th century for the republic and then city of Siena, region of Tuscany, Italy.
The records of the office are significant not only because Siena was one of the earlie ...
book covers for the Sienese commune in the 1270s. Some equate Guido as the father of
Meo di Siena.
Gallery
File:Guido da Siena - Annunciation - Google Art Project.jpg, '' Annunciation'', 1262–1279, in the Princeton University Art Museum
The Princeton University Art Museum (PUAM) is the Princeton University gallery of art, located in Princeton, New Jersey. With a collecting history that began in 1755, the museum was formally established in 1882, and now houses over 113,000 works o ...
File:Guido da Siena - Fuga in Egitto.jpg, '' Flight into Egypt'', 1270s, in the Lindenau-Museum
File:Guido Da Siena - Flagellation - WGA10988.jpg, ''Flagellation
Flagellation (Latin , 'whip'), flogging or whipping is the act of beating the human body with special implements such as whips, rods, switches, the cat o' nine tails, the sjambok, the knout, etc. Typically, flogging has been imposed on ...
'', 1270s, in the Lindenau-Museum
File:Guido Da Siena - Christ Crucified - WGA10989.jpg, '' Christ Crucified'', 1270s, in the Museum Catharijneconvent
Sources
Artcyclopedia - Guido da Siena*
*Joanna Cannon. "Guido da Siena." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online
*Hayden Maginnis "Everything in a name? Or the Classification of Sienese Duecento Painting" in ''Italian Panel Painting of the Duecento and Trecento'' V.M. Schmidt (ed.) (New Haven and London, 2002) pp. 471–485
*Luciano Bellosi "Per un contesto cimabuesco senese a) Guido da Siena e il probabile Dietisalvi" Propsettiva 61, 1991 pp. 6–20 and "Per un contesto cimabuesco senese b) Rinaldo da Siena e Guido di Graziano" Propsettiva 61, 1991, pp. 15–28
{{Authority control
13th-century Italian painters
Italian male painters
Byzantine painters
Painters from Siena
Gothic painters