Simone Martini 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.
Paintings by Simone Martini
Orsini Polyptych (1333)
The Orsini Polyptych (also known as the Orsini Altarpiece or Passion Polyptych) is an altarpiece produced at an unknown location by Simone Martini for private devotion by a cardinal of the Orsini family. Its precise date is still under discussion. It was taken to France very early in its lifespan and formed a major influence on late medieval French artists. It is now split between the Louvre in Paris, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp and the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.
On the back of the Louvre panel (Christ Bearing the Cross) is the coat of arms of the Orsini family. It shows the man who commissioned the painting dressed as a cardinal at the foot of the Cross. Some art historians see this as a portrait of the Roman cardinal Napoleone Orsini, who owned a fragment of the True Cross, which may explain the choice of subject. Under this hypothesis, he commissioned it before leaving Rome for the papal court in Avignon or in Avignon itself, where Martini followed Orsini.
Guidoriccio da Fogliano at the Siege of Montemassi (1330)
Guidoriccio da Fogliano at the Siege of Montemassi (Italian: Guidoriccio da Fogliano all'assedio di Monte Massi) is a fresco on the western wall of the Sala del Mappamondo in the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena. It shows Guidoriccio da Fogliano, the commander of the Sienese troops, on horseback against the background of a landscape in which the siege of Montemassi takes place.
For a long time it was assumed that the work was painted in 1330 by Simone Martini. This dating made it one of the first secular portraits and one of the first monumental landscape paintings. It is widely considered a masterpiece of European painting.
Annunciation with Saint Margaret and Saint Ansanus (1333)
The Annunciation with Saint Margaret and Saint Ansanus is a painting by the Italian Gothic artists Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi, now housed in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. It is a wooden triptych 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 Siena Cathedral.
The painting originally decorated the altar of Saint Ansanus in the Cathedral of Siena, and had been commissioned as part of a cycle of four altarpieces dedicated to the city's patron saints during 1330–1350. These included the Presentation at the Temple by Ambrogio Lorenzetti (1342; at the altar of Saint Crescentius), the Nativity of the Virgin by Pietro Lorenzetti (1342; at the altar of Saint Sabinus), and a Nativity, now disassembled, attributed to Bartolomeo Bulgarini (1351; at the altar of Saint Victor). All the paintings represent episodes in the Life of the Virgin, and were crowned by Duccio di Buoninsegna's Maestà. 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.
Saint Louis of Toulouse Crowning His Brother Robert of Anjou (1317)
Saint Louis of Toulouse Crowning His Brother Robert of Anjou is a painting by Simone Martini, commissioned from him by Robert of Anjou during the artist's stay in Naples around 1317. It shows Robert being crowned by his elder brother Louis of Toulouse, who was made a saint in 1317. It is now in the National Museum of Capodimonte in Naples.
Maestà (Simone Martini) (1315)
The Maestà is a large fresco (7.63 x 9.7 m) by Simone Martini. It takes up the whole north wall of the Sala del Mappamondo (or Sala del Consiglio) in the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena. It was created from 1312 to 1315 and is considered one of the artist's masterpieces and one of the most important examples of 14th-century Italian art.
Saint Catherine of Alexandria Polyptych (1320)
The Saint Catherine of Alexandria Polyptych (also known as Pisa Polyptych) is a painting by the Italian medieval artist Simone Martini, dating to 1320. Originally placed at the high altar of the church of Santa Caterina, Pisa, it is now housed in the Museo Nazionale di San Matteo of the same city.
The work is signed SYMON DE SENIS ME PINXIT in the central panel with the Madonna and Child. According to the original convent's annals, the polyptych was placed at the altar in 1320. It was thus completed by that year, having been likely begun in 1319.
The Carrying of the Cross (1335)
Christ carrying the cross
Blessed Agostino Novello Triptych (1328)
The Blessed Agostino Novello Triptych is a tempera on panel painting by Simone Martini, produced for a church in Siena between 1324 and 1328, at which time he had just returned from Assisi, Pisa and Orvieto to work on his frescoes at the Palazzo Pubblico. It now hangs in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Siena.
Its central panel shows Agostino Novello (1240-1309), prior-general of the Augustinian Order from around 1290 and later retiring to a hermitage in San Leonardo al Lago near Sienna. he holds a red book (the Order's Constitutions, which he edited) and an angel whispers divine inspiration into his right ear. Two small tondoes show unidentified Fathers of the Church, whilst the two side panels show miracles associated with Agostino, namely the child attacked by a wolf and the child who fell from a balcony on the left panel and the knight falling into a ravine and the child falling from its cradle on the right panel. All four scenes show the accident, the saint's intervention, the prayer which followed the miracle and a depiction of Sienna or the landscape around it.