Martino di Bartolomeo

Martino di Bartolomeo or Martino di Bartolomeo di Biago ( Italian: Martino di Bartolomeo ; worked in Siena from 1389 to 1435 ) - Italian artist , representative of the Siena school of painting .

Martino di Bartolomeo. The Coronation of Mary 1400 Los Angeles County Museum.

Martino di Bartolomeo. "St. Peter ”, c. 1440, detail. Washington, National Gallery.

Martino di Bartolomeo belongs to those universal Siena artists who could create a variety of artistic products: a fresco , an easel painting , and a book miniature. He is considered the last artist who, in the first half of the 15th century, continued to work in the manner of the 14th century . He was probably in no hurry to get rid of the burden of the traditions of the golden age of the Siena school, exchanging them for new Tuscan trends.

Judging by his early works, Martino was trained in the workshop of Taddeo di Bartolo . In 1389 , his name appears on the list of the guild of Siena artists. The first known major work of Martino di Bartolomeo is frescoes on the themes of the Old and New Testaments , which he painted in 1398 in Oratorio di San Giovanni in Cascina , near Pisa . The frescoes set out biblical stories in some detail, and were created so that the illiterate poor from this small town knew the contents of the Holy Scripture.

Archival documents report that Martino di Bartolomeo often joined forces with other craftsmen to complete orders. In Siena, he was apparently a well-known and respected man, and was in good relations with many of his colleagues. This is evidenced by the orders that he received - fresco cycles in the Cathedral of Siena and the Palazzo Pubblico , which the unlikely and unimportant master would hardly have trusted, as well as documented facts about relations with Jacopo della Quercia and Francesco di Valdambrino .

The number of his easel works that have survived to this day is small.