Lorenzetti, Pietro

Lorenzetti, Pietro

▪ Italian painter
born c. 1280, /90, Siena?, Republic of Siena
died c. 1348, Siena

      Italian Gothic painter of the Sienese school who with his brother Ambrogio was the principal exponent of Sienese secular art in the years before the Black Death. Little is known of Lorenzetti's life, and the attribution and dating of many of the works associated with him remains hazardous.

      He was probably a pupil of Duccio, whose influence is seen in the graceful linearity and rich colour of Lorenzetti's earliest documented work, the altarpiece (1320) in the Pieve di Sta. Maria, in Arezzo. But the altar's centrepiece, a “Madonna and Child,” replaces Duccio's frigidly hierarchical conception of the subject with an intimate depiction of an affectionate mother caressing her mischievously playful baby. Those features, combined with the wealth of decorative detail (recalling Simone Martini) and the plasticity of the figures (derived from Giovanni Pisano), lend the painting a vivacity rare in contemporary Sienese art.

      Sometime during 1330–40, Lorenzetti worked on a number of frescoes in the lower church of S. Francesco, in Assisi. The “Deposition,” in its clarity of composition and the monumentality of the sculpture-like draperies, shows a sensitive response to the art of Giotto. Lorenzetti's figures achieve corporeality by means of strong, only partly blended colours. The “Madonna and Child” in the same cycle, however, returns to the intimacy of the Arezzo altarpiece in the Child's exuberance and the Madonna's reproving look and abrupt gesture toward St. Francis. It is in such scenes as the “Last Supper” that he departs most strikingly from Giotto. He abandons Giotto's unity of time and place and compositional clarity in favour of carefully rendered minutiae and nonessential anecdote. That love of detail intrudes upon the otherwise Giottesque “Crucifixions” in S. Francesco, Siena, and Museo Diocesaro, Cortona.

      Lorenzetti's mature style is epitomized in the triptych “Birth of the Virgin” (1342; Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena), his last major work. That he used the decorative detail and familial anecdotes as the theme of a major altarpiece is illustrative of his nonhierarchical, humanizing tendencies. Perhaps the most notable feature of the “Birth” is its sophisticated handling of perspective and the logical placement of figures within space. The arches and colonnettes of the triptych frame form the foreground of the painted picture space, and one of the figures is painted in such a way that it appears to be standing behind one of the colonnettes. This constitutes one of the most advanced perspective studies of its time.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Lorenzetti, Pietro and Ambrogio — • Sienese painters. The time of their birth and death is not known Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006 …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Lorenzetti, Pietro — (c. 1290 1348)    Italian painter who, along with his brother Ambrogio Lorenzetti and Simone Martini, dominated the art scene in Siena. Pietro s Virgin and Child with Saints, Annunciation, and Assumption, the polyptych he created for the Pieve di …   Dictionary of Renaissance art

  • Lorenzetti, Pietro — ► (1280 1348) Pintor italiano, hermano de Ambroggio Lorenzetti. Sus cuadros poseen intenso dramatismo. Autor de El descendimiento de la Cruz y La Virgen con el Niño …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Lorenzetti, Pietro — (ca. 1280 ca. 1348) and AMBROGIO (after 1290 1348)    Sienese brothers, prominent artists succeeding to the position of Duccio and Simone Martini as Siena s leading painters. Pietro is known for his frescoes in the council chamber of his city,… …   Historical Dictionary of Renaissance

  • Lorenzetti, Pietro y Ambrogio — ( 1280/90, ¿Siena?, República de Siena– 1348, Siena) ( 1290, Siena, República de Siena– 1348, Siena). Pintores italianos. Posiblemente ambos hermanos fueron discípulos de Duccio di Buoninsegna, cuya influencia se observa en el retablo de Pietro… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Lorenzetti, Pietro and Ambrogio — born с 1280/90, Siena?, Republic of Siena died с 1348, Siena born с 1290, Siena, Republic of Siena died с 1348, Siena Italian painters. Both brothers were possibly pupils of Duccio di Buoninsegna, whose influence is seen in Pietro s altarpiece in …   Universalium

  • Pietro Lorenzetti — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Cristo entrando en Jerusalén (1320 1330), fresco de Pietro Lorenzetti para la basílica inferior de San Francisco, Asís. Pietro Lorenzetti (o Pietro Laurati; h. 1280 1348) fue un pintor italiano de estilo italo gótico …   Wikipedia Español

  • Pietro Lorenzetti — (or Pietro Laurati; c. 1280 1348) was an Italian painter, active between approximately 1306 and 1345. Biography He was born and died in Siena. He was influenced by Giovanni Pisano and Giotto, and worked alongside Simone Martini at Assisi. He and… …   Wikipedia

  • Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti —     Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti     † Catholic Encyclopedia ► Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti     Sienese painters. The time of their birth and death is not known. Their dated works extend over a period of thirty years, from 1316 to 1348.… …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Lorenzetti — Lorenzetti, Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Pietro …   Enciclopedia Universal

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”