Bartolo di Fredi (c. 1330 – 26 January 1410), also called Bartolo Battiloro, was an Italian painter, born in

Siena Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena. The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centur ...

, classified as a member of the Sienese School.

Biography

He had a large studio and was one of the most influential painters working in Siena and the surrounding towns in the second half of the fourteenth century. He registered in the Guild of that city in 1355; he had several children, who all died before him, with the exception of

Andrea di Bartolo Andrea di Bartolo or Andrea di Bartolo Cini (1360/70 – 1428) was an Italian painter, stained glass designer and Illuminated manuscript, illuminator of the Sienese School mainly known for his religious subjects. He was active between 1389–142 ...

. He was the companion of

Andrea Vanni Andrea Vanni (1332 – c. 1414) was an Italian painter of the early Renaissance, active mainly in his native Siena. Biography Vanni was born in about 1332 in Siena. The first notice of him as a painter comes from 1353 when he was associated with ...

from 1353, and helped decorate the Hall of Council at Siena, in 1361. From 1356 he worked in the Collegiata, or principal church, of

San Gimignano San Gimignano () is a small walled medieval hill town in the province of Siena, Tuscany, north-central Italy. Known as the Town of Fine Towers, San Gimignano is famous for its medieval architecture, unique in the preservation of about a dozen of ...

, some 30 km from Siena, where he painted the entire side of the left aisle with a cycle of frescoes of ''Scenes from the Old Testament''; the completed work was signed and dated in 1367. In 1366 the Council of the city of Gimignano ordered a painting, representing ''Two Monks of the Augustine Order'' to be placed in 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 off ...

, in order to commemorate the settlement of some disputes which had long existed between that order and the city. In the early part of 1367 he was employed, along with

Giacomo di Mino Jacopo di Mino del Pellicciaio (14th century) was an Italian painter, active in Siena. He is also called Giacomo di Mino. He appears to be a follower of Simone Martini. He was the contemporary of Lippo Vanni and Luca Thome, being in 1373 appoi ...

, in the decoration of the

Cathedral of Siena A cathedral is a church that contains the ''cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominations ...

. In 1372 he rose to a position in the government of the city, and was sent to welcome the new Podestà on his approach to Siena. In 1381 he was himself made a member of the Council. In 1382 he executed the ''Descent from the Cross'' now in the Sacristy of San Francesco,

Montalcino Montalcino is a hill town and ''comune'' in the province of Siena, Tuscany, central Italy. The town is located to the west of Pienza, close to the Crete Senesi in Val d'Orcia. It is from Siena, from Florence and from Pisa. Monte Amiata is ...

. The same church also possesses panels painted by him containing the ''Baptism of Christ'', figures of SS. Peter, Paul, and Francis, and five scenes from the ''Life of St Philip of Montalcino''. In 1389, Bartolo, assisted by

Luca Thome The last universal common ancestor (LUCA) is the most recent population from which all organisms now living on Earth share common descent—the most recent common ancestor of all current life on Earth. This includes all cellular organisms; th ...

, painted the altar-piece for the Shoemakers' Company, in the

, and continued from that year until his death to furnish altar-pieces for the cathedral and other churches of Siena, which have now all disappeared. His style is marked by the rejection of the concrete figures associated with

Pietro Lorenzetti Pietro Lorenzetti (; – 1348) or Pietro Laurati was an Italian painter, active between c. 1306 and 1345. Together with his younger brother Ambrogio, he introduced naturalism into Sienese art. In their artistry and experiments with three-dimen ...

to instead favor flatter decorative otherworldly compositions in the manner of

Simone Martini Simone Martini ( – 1344) 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. It is thought that Martini was a pupil ...

and

Duccio Duccio di Buoninsegna ( , ; – ) was an Italian painter active in Siena, Tuscany, in the late 13th and early 14th century. He was hired throughout his life to complete many important works in government and religious buildings around Italy. Du ...

. He combined a spirit of fantasy with anecdotal details. The

Honolulu Museum of Art The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. The museum has one of the largest single co ...

, the

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 19 ...

, the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the '' Venus de Milo''. A central ...

, the

National Museum of Serbia The National Museum of Serbia ( sr, / ) is the largest and oldest museum in Belgrade, Serbia. It is located in the central zone of Belgrade on a square plot between the Republic Square, formerly Theatre Square, and three streets: Čika Ljubina ...

, the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, the Musée des beaux-arts de Chambéry, the

Musée du Petit Palais, Avignon The Musée du Petit Palais is a museum and art gallery in Avignon, southern France. It opened in 1976 and has an exceptional collection of Renaissance paintings of the Avignon school as well as from Italy, which reunites many "primitives" from ...

, the Museo Civico e Diocesano d'Arte Sacra of Montalcino, the church of

San Francesco, Lucignano San Francesco is a Romanesque architecture, Romanesque- and Gothic architecture, Gothic-style Roman Catholic church located in the center of Lucignano, region of Tuscany, Italy. History The church is first mentioned as belonging to Franciscan ord ...

, the

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

and the

Fralin Museum of Art The Fralin Museum of Art is an art museum at the University of Virginia. Before 2012, it was known as the University of Virginia Art Museum. It occupies the historic Thomas H. Bayly Building on Rugby Road in Charlottesville, Virginia, a short dis ...

are among the public collections having paintings by Bartolo di Fredi.

Gallery

Image:Bartolo di Fredi 001.jpg, Detail from the triptych ''The Coronation of the Virgin'' (1388), tempera on panel, Museo Civico e Diocesano d'Arte Sacra, Montalcino File:Bartolo di Fredi. Nativity and Adoration of Shepherds1383.jpg, ''Nativity and Adoration of Shepherds'' (1383), tempera on panel File:Coronation of the Virgin Bartolo di Fredi Montalcino, Museo civico d'Arte sacra.jpg, ''Coronation of the Virgin'' (1388), tempera on panel, Museo Civico e Diocesano d'Arte Sacra, Montalcino File:Presentation in the Temple. Bartolo di Fredi..jpg, ''Presentation in the Temple'' (1388), tempera on panel, The Louvre, Paris File:Bartolo di Fredi - Annunciation - WGA1323.jpg, ''The Annunciation''
(c. 1383), tempera on panel, Museum of Fine Art, Budapest File:Bartolo di Fredi - The Adoration of the Magi (ca. 1390).jpg, ''The Adoration of the Magi'' (c. 1390), tempera and gold on wood, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

References

External links

Web Gallery of Art
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Biography

Gallery

References

External links

Further reading