1. MedievWorld1_fm_4pp.qxd

Martini, Simone 479

the VISIGOTHS, the bishops of Gaul directed miraculously
by Martin, sided with CLOVIS, the king of the FRANKS, who
was ultimately victorious in 507. Clovis gave thanks to
Martin by making him a patron of the kingdom of the
Franks. Devotion to Martin grew in several stages, reach-
ing a peak in the sixth century with revivals in the eighth
and ninth centuries. He remained one of the most popular
saints of the Middle Ages and a very common image in art.
Further reading:Christopher Donaldson, Martin of
Tours: Parish Priest, Mystic and Exorcist(London: Rout-
ledge and Kegan Paul, 1980); Sharon Framer, Communi-
ties of Saint Martin: Legend and Ritual in Medieval Tours
(Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1991); Clare Stan-
cliffe, St. Martin and His Hagiographer: History and Mira-
cle in Sulpicius Severus(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991).

Martini, Simone(ca. 1284–1344) Gothic artist
Simone was employed on prestigious commissions and
worked for eminent patrons. We are fairly well informed
about his career and the date of several of his signed

works. However, the dating, and the authenticity of key

works have remained controversial. He was born about

1284, probably in SIENA, and was a pupil of DUCCIOand

learned FRESCOtechniques through working at ASSISI.

Martini was now particularly admired for his use of

line and color in his narrative painting. He introduced

several innovative altarpiece designs and devised meth-

ods of stamping a surface and overlaying gold leaf to cre-

ate elaborate surface textures. To fresco painting, he

introduced new decorative techniques and the three-

dimensional representation through the use of recession

and light.

For much of his life Simone was based in Siena. His

earliest known work, probably completed in 1315, was the

fresco of the Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints and

Angelsin the main council chamber in Siena. He continued

to function as almost the official painter of the Sienese

commune until about 1333. He also worked at Assisi,

decorating the Saint Martin chapel in the Lower Church

of San Francesco, and in NAPLES, where he painted a

panel of Saint Louis of Toulouse crowning Robert of

Simone Martini’s Annunciation,Uffizi, Florence, Italy (Alinari / Art Resource)