MELIORE

Italian painter. The signature Melior appears on a dossal dated 1271 depicting Christ with the Virgin and Saints (Florence, Uffizi), and it can be identified as that of Meliore dipintore, populi Sancti Jacobi tra le fosse (‘Meliore the Painter, of the Parish of St Jacob between the Ditches’) mentioned among the combatants in the Battle of Montaperti in 1260. The suggestion that the artist was the Megliore di Jacopo documented at Pistoia from 1239 to 1253 is less certain. There is also evidence of a panel (untraced) signed and dated 1270 that existed in the 17th century in the church of S Francesco, Barberino di Val d’Elsa. On the basis of stylistic similarities, a dossal depicting the Virgin and Child with SS Peter and Paul and Four Scenes from the Saints’ Lives (Panzano, Greve, S Leolino) is also attributed to Meliore and is regarded as the most important work of his early period. The influence of contemporary Pisan painting is evident in this work, but the deliberate placing of the characters in a narrative context recalls the style of the Bigallo Master.