attentive in marking the muscles and veins in his figures. He did not always aim at novelty and display in his invention; on the contrary, after painting a Murder of the Innocents, which was his best composition,[273] he often repeated it in Siena, and in Naples, but always with improvements: his most studious picture on this subject is that at the Servi of Siena, painted in 1491, which must have been near the close of his life. He was accustomed to introduce into his pictures some episode, unconnected with the principal story, in small figures, a style in which he excelled. The noble house of Sozzini and some other families in Siena, possess several of his small pictures. As an artist, he is inferior to Bellini, to Francia, or Vannucci; but surpasses many others. Another eminent Sienese, who flourished in the first ages of oil painting, is made known to us by Ciriaco Anconitano,[274] who was acquainted with him in 1449, at the court of Leonello, Marquis of Este. This artist was named Angelo Parrasio: he painted the nine muses in the palace of Belfiore, near Ferrara, in imitation of the manner of Giovanni and Ruggieri da Bruggia.
[247] See Lettere Sanesi, tom. ii. let. 23, addressed to the author of this work.
[248] See Lett. Sen. tom. ii. p. 23, et sequent.
[249] In regard to these documents the public is much indebted to the Abate Ciaccheri, the learned librarian of the city, who employed himself for many years in collecting them; but his eyes failing him, it became necessary that others should publish them: the excellent historian has frequently made mention of him.
[250] The work was published by Trombelli, at Bologna, in 1766. Della Valle, tom. i. p. 278. What he adds, that this very Oderico may be the Oderigi da Gubbio, noticed by Dante in the xith canto of his Purgatorio, ought not to be admitted. Dante might, for the sake of rhyme, change Oderico into Oderigi; but he has said, in the middle of the verse, that the celebrated miniature painter was a native of Gubbio. Moreover, the latter, who died about 1300, could not have painted in 1213.
[251] See Della Valle, tom. ii. p. 273.
[252] This is an Annunciation, with the following verse:
Virgo parit Christum velut Angelus intimat ipso.
The error in the last word stands on the picture.
[253] Hard by the cathedral of that city there are two lions, on one of which, in a mixture of Greek and Latin characters, is written,
Mahister Thexde fevit (fecit) & fevit fieri ambos istos.
[254] See Lettere Sanesi, tom. i. p. 243.
[255] Tom. ii. p. 15.
[256] P. 288.
[257] See Lett. Sen. tom. ii. p. 276.
[258] Vigintiquinque Christi cum mille ducentis, &c. Vide Piacenza, tom. i. p. 70. Baldinucci was extremely diligent in his research of epochs; but he took care not to mention this, inasmuch as it overturned his system.
[259] History only gives him some assistants in mosaic; at Pisa Tafi and Gaddo Gaddi; at Rome, in S. Maria Maggiore, a Franciscan monk, who there executed a portrait of himself, and inscribed his name, that is now illegible, and his native place, which was Camerino. One F. Giacomo da Camerino painted in the cathedral of Orvieto in 1321, and it is probable that this is the same artist.
[260] See ante, p. 14.
[261] See Lett. Sen. p. 279.
[262] Lett. Sen. tom. i. p. 277.
[263] Ibid. tom. ii. p. 69.
[264] Martino was the father of Simone; Memmo or Guglielmo his father-in-law; and in the inscriptions on his pictures he sometimes assumes the one name, and sometimes the other. Benvoglienti.
[265] I conjecture this on the authority of Vasari, who says, that he died in 1345, at the age of 60. In the genuine books at S. Domenico, of Siena, we find this sentence "Magister Simon Martini pictor mortuus est in curiâ; cujus exequias fecimus … 1344." Since Vasari approaches so near the truth in the time of the painter's death, we may reasonably credit him also in his age. Mancini says he was born about 1270; which gives occasion for P. della Valle to mention Simone as a contemporary, and a competitor of Giotto at Rome. I cannot agree with him on this date, and the information drawn by him from books belonging to the Sienese hospital, that Simone was in Siena in 1344, only a few months before his death, at the court of the Pope at Avignon, strengthens my opinion. I cannot believe that an old man of seventy-four would transfer his residence from Siena to Avignon. If we credit Vasari the difficulty vanishes, inasmuch as Simone, being then scarcely sixty, might be equal to undertake so long a journey.
[266] See Lett. Senesi, tom. ii. p. 101.
[267] There is on it A. D. 1333, Simon Martini et Lippus Memmi de Senis me pinxerunt. It is now in the ducal gallery at Florence. It may be remarked on the chronology of this painter, that where we find not Memmi but only Lippo or Filippo, it does not always seem intended for him. Thus the M. Filippo, who received a sum of money in 1308, and that Lippo, who, in 1361, is said to be the assistant of another artist, (Lett. Sen. tom. ii. p. 110), most probably are not to be identified with Memmi. He was younger than his relation, and according to Vasari, survived him 14 years.
[268] Statuti dell' arte de' Pittori Senesi.
[269] This Guido da Siena is, perhaps, the one mentioned by Sacchetti in his eighty-fourth tale, and of whom there remains a picture in the church of S. Antonio, painted in 1362. Baldinucci.
[270] Manfredi.
[271] In the parish church of S. Gimignano is an historical fresco of this artist, dated 1356, and in that of S. Agostino, a painting in a much better style, according to Vasari, executed in 1388, which date P. della Valle gives as 1358.
