MEMMI, Lippo

The Annunciation scene is located in the lunette of the first bay in the north aisle of the Collegiata, San Gimignano. The scene takes place in a rectangular interior that offers a striking contrast to the pointed arch of the lunette. With bowed head and hands clasped at his chest, the angel kneels before the seated Virgin, who pulls back in surprise. Behind Mary a drawn curtain reveals her sleeping chamber. God the Father and an aureole of angels fill the sky visible above this starkly outlined interior. The right side shows an adjoining room in which a maid sits holding a distaff. This motif undoubtedly originated in Giotto’s depiction of the Annunciation to St Anne in Padua.

The scene of the Betrayal of Judas is located in the first by of the north aisle of the Collegiata, San Gimignano. In the payment of the silver to Judas, a minor scene in the fresco cycle by Simone Martini in the St Martin Chapel of the Lower Church, San Francesco, Assisi, is echoed directly.

The panels by Lippo Memmi depicting Vallombrosan saints, St Mary Magdalen, Christ Blessing and the seated St John the Baptist once formed part of a polyptych, now dismembered.

The scene of the Crucifixion interrupts the three-register schema of the cycle: it takes up the space of four fields in the fifth bay, thus it is given prominence within the overall cycle. The principal source for this large painting is clearly the corresponding fresco by Pietro Lorenzetti in the lower church of Assisi. Both scenes are filled with people. Now, however, the crowd of figures gathered around the three crosses is sparser and the view of Christ on the cross at full height is unobstructed. Individual figures and groups are more clearly distinguished from one another; the variety, colour and splendour of the costumes is toned down; and the emotional content is heightened.

The viewer’s gaze is directed to the figure of Christ mainly by the centurion, who points to the crucified Christ with a hand raised high and turns back to one of the Pharisees, who responds only with a black look. It is unusual that both the Pharisee and the centurion are on horses, but his too reveals the closeness to Pietro Lorenzetti, one of whose favourite motifs were riders facing into the painting, with the hindquarters of their horses toward the viewer.

The painting is the work of a painter from the circle of Lippo Memmi.

The Chapel of the Corporal is situated at the end of the left aisle of the Cathedral. It was built in 1350-61 for the reliquiary keeping the sacred cloth of the miracle of Bolsena. Memmi’s fresco is also in this chapel. The painting was variously modified, specially in the 19th century. Some think that the only original part of the painting is the lower one, where we can see the Pious Women and the Brethren recommending themselves to the Madonna in prayer.

The fresco shows the influence of Simone Martini’s Maestà painted two years earlier in the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena.

The paired figures to the left and right were added by Bartolo di Fredi when the fresco was enlarged in 1367. The fresco was repaired along the lower edge in the 1460s by Benozzo Gozzoli, who may have repainted the heads of the two figures to the far right.

The fresco shows the influence of Simone Martini’s Maestà painted two years earlier in the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena.

The paired figures to the left and right were added by Bartolo di Fredi when the fresco was enlarged in 1367. The fresco was repaired along the lower edge in the 1460s by Benozzo Gozzoli, who may have repainted the heads of the two figures to the far right.

The scene of Mocking of Christ is located in the fourth bay, bottom left. In this fresco there are echoes of Giotto’s Padua fresco in the crowd armed with spears and poles.

The scenes in the first bay of the north aisle in the Collegiata, San Gimignano, are the following: The Annunciation (top). Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem (middle, two sections), Betrayal of Judas (bottom left), The Last Supper (bottom right).

The scenes in the second bay of the north aisle in the Collegiata, San Gimignano, are the following: Birth of Christ (top), Transfiguration (middle left), Raising of Lazarus (middle right), Arrest of Christ (bottom left), Agony in the Garden (bottom right).

The three panels by Lippo Memmi in Altenburg, depicting St John the Baptist, and two Vallombrosan saints, once formed part of a polyptych representing seated saints, now dismembered.

The inscription fragment on the scroll is from John 1:29, which reads, “Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” These are the words St John the Baptist spoke to Jesus, when Jesus encountered him baptizing beyond the Jordan River. Living in the wilderness, the saint was clothed in a camel skin, and his hair was matted — just as we see him here.

This image, formerly attributed to Lippo Memmi’s brother-in-law, Simone Martini, was probably created for the church of San Giovanni Battista in San Gimignano. It was part of an imposing altarpiece, of which five panels depicting saints (Peter, Paul, John the Evangelist, Francis, and Louis of Toulouse) have been identified in other museums. Originally, they would have been arranged on either side of a slightly larger central image, perhaps of the Madonna and Child.

The panels by Lippo Memmi depicting Vallombrosan saints, St Mary Magdalen, Christ Blessing and the seated St John the Baptist once formed part of a polyptych, now dismembered. The polyptych was executed in the Memmi workshop where Lippo Memmi and his brother Federico Memmi (documented 1344-1347) worked together.

The panels by Lippo Memmi depicting Vallombrosan saints, St Mary Magdalen, Christ Blessing and the seated St John the Baptist once formed part of a polyptych, now dismembered.

This image was probably created for the church of San Giovanni Battista in San Gimignano. It was part of an imposing altarpiece, of which five panels depicting saints (Paul, John the Baptist, John the Evangelist, Francis, and Louis of Toulouse) have been identified in other museums. Originally, they would have been arranged on either side of a slightly larger central image, perhaps of the Madonna and Child.

The altarpiece was executed between 1329 and 1333 for the chapel of Sant’Ansano of the Cathedral in Siena by Simone Martini and his brother-in-law Lippo Memmi, to whom are attributed the two lateral figures: Saint Ansano - patron of Siena - and Saint Giulitta. On the gold background the figures of Angel Gabriel and the Virgin enhances Gothic line, without narrative details: just the central pot with lilies, symbolizing Mary’s purity, and the olive branch. The golden relief inscription starting from the Angel’s mouth contains beginning words of the Annunciation.

In this altarpiece St Thomas Aquinas receives not only the divine wisdom but also the wisdom of the Evangelists and the philosophers of the classical world. He then convey this to the Christian community, and also, in order to convert them, to the enemies of the Church. The intertwining structure of these rays of vision or wisdom determines the composition of the picture and creates a pictorial order which reflects the divine order of the cosmos.

The panel probably was painted on the occasion of the canonization of St Thomas in 1323.

The three panels by Lippo Memmi in Altenburg, depicting St John the Baptist, and two Vallombrosan saints, once formed part of a polyptych representing seated saints, now dismembered.

The three panels by Lippo Memmi in Altenburg, depicting St John the Baptist, and two Vallombrosan saints, once formed part of a polyptych representing seated saints, now dismembered.

The Sala del Consiglio is known as the Dante Room, because this was where the great poet was welcomed. The room has a coffered ceiling, and on the wall at the back the fresco Maestà by Lippo Memmi.

Lippo Memmi, the brother-in-law of Simone Martini, can be considered an artist of the same importance as Simone Martini himself. This small Virgin and Child is a good example of the delicacy of his art which influenced considerably the next generation of painters such as Andrea Vanni.

The figure of the Child in this painting is taken from the Maestà by Simone Martini in the Palazzo Pubblico, Siena. Earlier, in 1317 in San Gimignano, Lippo Memmi had already reproduced Simone Martini’s composition.