1283–1344

Painter

An Italian Master.

A close imitator and perhaps even a pupil of the famous painter Duccio in Siena, Italy, Simone Martini (active 1315–1344) might have worked on some of his master's later commissions and perhaps even on the famous Maestà (an altarpiece featuring the Virgin enthroned). He was himself commissioned to paint a Maestà in 1315 for the council chamber in the Palazzo Pubblico (town hall) in Siena. Invited to Naples by Robert of Anjou, king of Naples, he painted a portrait of the king receiving his crown from the hands of his brother St. Louis of Toulouse. His most notable works, however, remained in Siena. For the city council there he created an equestrian portrait of Guidoriccio da Fogliano (to celebrate the Sienese victory of Montemassi in 1328), and for the Cathedral he painted an impressive Annunciation set in a French gothic flamboyant frame with twisted colonnades...