MATTEO di Giovanni

In the centre of the painting is the Annunciation flanked by Sts John the Baptist and Bernardino of Siena. Above is the Crucifixion with Sts Peter and Paul.

As the Virgin rises to heaven surrounded by angels music-making, her girdle falls from her waist. It is about to be caught by Saint Thomas, the disciple who doubted that Christ had risen from the dead and who was given this extra proof of the Virgin’s Assumption. Christ, accompanied by prophets and ancestors, among them David and John the Baptist, welcomes his mother.

The painting, said to have been dated 1474, formed the centre of an altarpiece in S. Agostino, Asciano, near Siena where Matteo di Giovanni worked. Side panels representing Saint Michael and Saint Augustine survive in Asciano. The Annunciation and perhaps other saints were represented on a higher tier of the polyptych.

As the Virgin rises to heaven surrounded by angels music-making, her girdle falls from her waist. It is about to be caught by Saint Thomas, the disciple who doubted that Christ had risen from the dead and who was given this extra proof of the Virgin’s Assumption. Christ, accompanied by prophets and ancestors, among them David and John the Baptist, welcomes his mother.

The painting, said to have been dated 1474, formed the centre of an altarpiece in S. Agostino, Asciano, near Siena where Matteo di Giovanni worked. Side panels representing Saint Michael and Saint Augustine survive in Asciano. The Annunciation and perhaps other saints were represented on a higher tier of the polyptych.

This painting shows Jesus on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, urging two fishermen, the brothers Peter and Andrew, to become his disciples. Jesus leans forward to help Peter out of the boat, while Andrew casts his net aside, symbolically leaving his old life behind. This panel was once part of a predella, a sequence of small paintings situated beneath the main scenes of an altarpiece.

This early panel by Matteo di Giovanni is a devotional image enriched with gold. The inscription in the upper centre on the Madonna’s halo reads: REGINA CELI LETA[RE ALLELUIA] (O Queen of Heaven, rejoice!)

Formerly, this painting was in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. It was sold for the Acquisitions Fund in 2013.

Several of the saints depicted cannot be recognized with certainty due to a lack of attributes. Running clockwise from upper left they should be identified as Catherine of Siena (one of the patron saints of Siena), an anonymous female saint, Bartholomew, Lawrence, a Franciscan monk and an anonymous male saint.

The inscription in the upper centre on the Madonna’s halo reads: AVE.GRATIA PLENA.DO[MINVS TECVM] (Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; from Luke 1:28).

This Madonna stems from the mature period of the artist and is without doubt among his principal works. It shows that the long stay in Siena assimilated Matteo to local artistic traditions. We find reflections of the elegance of the outlines and of the melancholy charm of figures by Duccio, Ugolino, Simone Martini and other Trecento painters in Matteo’s works much more than his local colleagues.

Originally this fragment was part of the pinnacle of the altarpiece painted in 1482 for the church of Sant’Agostino in Siena.

This panel was intended for private devotion.

Matteo di Giovanni is best known for four monumental compositions of the Massacre of the Innocents, three for Sienese churches and one in inlaid stone for the pavement of the Duomo. In the version in Sant’Agostino, the arches and columns of Herod’s palace suggest that the artist had visited Rome. He has left no foreground space and every inch of Herod’s hall is occupied by screaming mothers, dead or dying babies, and bloodthirsty soldiers. The marble pavement is covered by infant corpses. Impassive courtiers flank Herod’s throne, while the gloating king is portrayed as a monster: one hand is outstretched to order the butchery; the other, like a claw, clutches the marble sphinx on the arm of his throne.

This panel formed part of the predella of an unidentified altarpiece. It depicts the story of St Bernardino (d. 1444) and the miracle by which he emerged from heaven to save a drowning ten year old boy.

This is one of the early works of the painter. He probably painted this picture as part of the decoration of the framing pilasters of a large-size altarpiece. The figure of the saint reveals that the master received his initial artistic training in Umbria, and that he was especially inspired by the classical forms and light-permeated colours of Piero della Francesca.

In a golden background, the saint is presented in a niche below a trilobed arc. In his left hand he holds a book, while in his right hand the three balls of gold, his iconographical attributions,

This panel, and the similar panel depicting St Jerome (Christian Museum, Esztergom) belonged to an altarpiece, now dismembered.

This painting may have been part of an altarpiece, or a votive picture, or one made for private devotion.

According to the legend, Bartholomew was first flayed then beheaded because the Apostle refused to worship idols. Consequently, already beginning with the 14th century, many of the portrayals of the Saint show him as holding his own flayed skin. Matteo di Giovanni, however, was not content with the type of representation customary in Tuscany, holding his skin in hand but smartly dressed. He preferred to follow an old Umbrian iconographic tradition and to portray the already flayed Apostle as an athletic nude wearing his skin elegantly as a stole over his shoulder.

The painting was earlier attributed to Antonio del Pollaiolo.

The Virgin holds the Christ Child and is flanked by two angels and Saints Jerome (at the left) and Bernardino of Siena (at the right). Bernardino (1380-1444) holds up a tablet monogrammed with the name of Christ. The monogram is partly covered by Jesus’s head to show us its true meaning. The naturalistic modeling of the figures and their overlapping spatial arrangement reveal Matteo di Giovanni’s mastery of the new way of creating pictorial space. At the same time, as a tribute to his native city, he includes the traditional Sienese gold ground of earlier centuries.