Martino di Bartolomeo or Martino di Bartolomeo di Biago was an Italian painter and
manuscript illuminator active between 1389 and 1434. He was one of his generation's principal painters of the
Sienese School. From specific aspects of his early style, he is believed to have trained in the studio of
Taddeo di Bartolo
Taddeo di Bartolo (c. 1363 – 26 August 1422), also known as Taddeo Bartoli, was an Italian painter of the Sienese School during the early Renaissance. He is among the artists profiled in Vasari's biographies of artists or ''Vite''. Vas ...
. As a young man Martino collaborated with
Giovanni di Pietro da Napoli (active 1402-1405) in
Pisa. The fresco cycle in the church of San Giovanni Battista di Cascina, outside Pisa, bears Martino’s signature, and the date 1398. He returned permanently to Siena in 1405; there he painted several prominent fresco cycles in the
Duomo
''Duomo'' (, ) is an Italian term for a church with the features of, or having been built to serve as, a cathedral, whether or not it currently plays this role. Monza Cathedral, for example, has never been a diocesan seat and is by definition n ...
and the
Palazzo Pubblico
The Palazzo Pubblico (''town hall'') is a palace in Siena, Tuscany, central Italy. Construction began in 1297 to serve as the seat of the Republic of Siena's government, which consisted of the Podestà and Council of Nine, the elected officia ...
. Further official commissions for altarpieces and for polychromy of sculptures attest to his versatility and to his prestige as one of the city’s official artists.
Martino's early activity as an illuminator of manuscripts is based on Luciano Bellosi's recognition of his hand in the set of choirbooks commissioned for the cathedral of
Lucca
Lucca ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio River, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. The city has a population of about 89,000, while its province has a population of 383,957.
Lucca is known as one ...
by its bishop, Niccolò Guinigi, in 1394.
When he contracted with the ''Collegiata'' of
San Gimignano for the polychromy of the carved wooden ''Annunciation'' in 1420, the sculptor,
Jacopo della Quercia
Jacopo della Quercia (, ; 20 October 1438), also known as Jacopo di Pietro d'Agnolo di Guarnieri, was an Italian sculptor of the Renaissance, a contemporary of Brunelleschi, Ghiberti and Donatello. He is considered a precursor of Michelangelo ...
, stood guarantor. Jacopo's father, Pietro di Angiolo, worked in Martino's shop.
[Adolfo Venturi, ''Storia dell'arte italiana'' vol. vi (1908:69).]
Notes
References
* Bénézit, Emmanuel, ed., ''Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs'', Originally published 1911-1923, Paris,
Librairie Gründ, 1976.
* El Paso Museum of Art, ''The Samuel H. Kress Collection'', El Paso, El Paso Museum of Art, 1961.
* ''Encyclopedia of World Art'', New York, McGraw-Hill, 1959-1987.
Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena: ''Altarpiece with Saints James, Catherine, Magdalen and Ansano''
External links
''Italian Paintings: Sienese and Central Italian Schools'' a collection catalog containing information about Bartolomeo and his works (see index; plate 30-31).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bartolomeo, Martino di
14th-century Italian painters
Italian male painters
15th-century Italian painters
Painters from Siena
Fresco painters
Catholic painters
Manuscript illuminators