in 1330 and 1331; Since Guidoriccio shows castles in
the background, some scholars assume that it is among
the documented pictures. However, the fresco was not
mentioned by Ghiberti or Vasari, and it is not signed.
Moreover, there are errors in the treatment of military
details that lead some to conclude not only that the
painting is not by Martini, but that it is later than the
fourteenth century. A relatively recent discovery of a
fresco containing a castle lower down on the same wall
as Guidoriccio allows us to attribute that work to Martini
in lieu of die disputed picture. But if Guidoriccio is by
Martini, and the inaccuracies are due to sloppy restora-
tions in later times, the fresco demonstrates the painter’s
innovativeness. The warrior, identifi ed as Guidoriccio by
his heraldry, rides alone immediately behind the picture
plane, a broad landscape stretching far beyond him—an
image without precedent in medieval secular palaces.
The Saint Ansanus Annunciation (Florence, Uffi zi) is
signed by both Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi and
dated 1333. It is painted in tempera on wood and is an
early example of an altarpiece illustrated with a narrative
scene. The work shows Saint Ansanus and an unidenti-
fi ed female saint (Margaret?) at either side and prophets
in roundels. It was the fi rst of four altarpieces for the
cathedral of Siena, dedicated to the four saintly protec-
tors of the city, one of whom was Ansanus. The frame
was added in the late nineteenth century. The records of
payment shed no light on the respective responsibilities
of the two collaborators. Probably Martini painted the
Annunciation and Memmi painted the two saints and
the prophets. A fi fth roundel most likely portrayed God
the father. The Annunciation is noteworthy for its Im-
mediacy: Gabriel has just alighted, his cape still fl ying,
while the Virgin recoils in fear. Elegant details include
Mary’s intarsia throne; the marble fl oor; and Gabriel’s
brocaded robe, plaid cape, and rose-tinged wings. As
in other Sienese Annunciations, Gabriel bears an olive
branch instead of a lily. He also wears a crown of olive
leaves. Symbolic of peace, these leaves perhaps allude
to the coming of Jesus, the prince of peace. The words
of Gabriel’s announcement, Ave Gratia Plena Dominus
Tecum (Luke 1:28), are in relief; they can thus be read
metaphorically as the word that becomes fl esh in Mary’s
womb at this instant.The Altarpiece of the Blessed Agos-
tino Novello (Siena, Pinaco-teca Nazionale) is a tempera
painting in an old-fashioned pala format. Though it is
unsigned and undated, most scholars believe that Mar-
tini was the artist. It was painted for Saint’ Agostino
in Siena and was fi rst documented in 1638, together
with the sarcophagus of the Beatus (now lost) that it
decorated. Agostino, a hermit monk who died in 1309
outside Siena, was venerated locally. The central panel
of the altarpiece portrays him standing amid four trees,
book in hand, an inspirational angel at his ear. The side
panels illustrate four posthumous miracles—two drawn
from Augustinian texts, two unrecorded. Each contains
two episodes, a disaster followed by salvation. Three of
the four stories show Agostino saving small children,
an emphasis compatible with the protohumanism of the
early Trecento.
Martini and his workshop painted other polyptychs,
typically showing a half-length Virgin and child in the
center fl anked by panels containing busts of saints. At
least two rested on a predella, and all apparently were
crowned with gables fi lled with bust-length fi gures.
The altarpiece painted for Santa Caterina in Pisa (Pisa,
Museo Nazionale di San Matteo) and signed by Martini
seems to have survived intact. The others, broken up and
with many panels missing, apparently were painted as
altar-pieces for churches in Orvieto and San Gimignano.Avignon (c. 1335–1344)
The frescoes originally in the porch of the cathedral of
Notre Dame des Doms, Avignon, were probably com-
missioned by Cardinal Jacopo Stefaneschi (d. 1341).
When the badly damaged fragments that survive were
transferred to the museum of the Palais des Papes, up
to three layers of sinopie were revealed. Two works are
completely lost: Andrea Corsini Healing a Blind Man, a
portrayal of a miracle that took place in the porch itself;
and Saint George and the Dragon, known through a sev-
enteenth-century copy. The extant fragments and sinopie
portray the earliest known Madonna of Humility and
an adult Jesus with an orb fl anked by six angels. In the
former, the donor kneels before the Virgin, and the child
holds a scroll inscribed “I am the light of the world”; in
the latter, the unusual orb contains a landscape framed
between rippling water and a starry sky. The changes
in the skillfully drawn series of sinopie suggest that the
patron played an active role in the artist’s progress.
The Holy Family (Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery) is
signed and dated 1342. This small picture in tempera
is a unique portrayal of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph im-
mediately after the disputation with the doctors in the
temple. The codex in the Virgin’s lap contains an ab-
breviated quotation from Luke 2:48—“Son, why hast
thou dealt with us thus?”—and the gestures indicate a
parental reprimand of the defi ant Jesus. This work is
an unusual example of the Holy Family as an ordinary
family with ordinary problems; as such, it refl ects the
human values of the time.
The Virgil Frontispiece (Milan, Biblioteca Ambro-
siana) was painted on vellum for Petrarch between
1338 and 1344. A couplet inscribed on it states that the
artist was Simone Martini. This painting was made for
Petrarch’s volume of classical texts, which included
most of Virgil; it originally faced the fi rst work, a fourth-
century commentary by Servius on the Bucolics. The
image seems to be an allegory explained by two otherMARTINI, SIMONE