Pietro Lorenzetti

Background

Pietro Lorenzetti was born in 1280, in Siena, Toscana, Italy. He had a younger brother, Ambrogio, also an artist.

Education

Pietro was probably a pupil of Duccio, whose influence is seen in the graceful linearity and rich color of Lorenzetti’s earliest documented work.

Career

Sometimes called Pietro Laurati, Lorenzetti was an influential Italian painter active between 1306 and 1345. He was influenced by Giovanni Pisano and Giotto, and also worked alongside the Sienese painter Simone Martini at Assisi. He and his brother, Ambrogio Lorenzetti, helped introduce naturalism into the otherwise mystical Sienese art. In their artistry were experiments with three-dimensional and spatial arrangements, which foreshadowed the art of the Renaissance.

Many of Lorenzetti’s religious works are in churches in Siena, Arezzo, and Assisi. One of his wonderful works is the "Nativity of the Virgin", created in 1342, now in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo. His masterwork is a tempera fresco decoration of the lower church of Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi, where he painted a series of large panels depicting the Crucifixion, Deposition from the Cross, and Entombment with emotional figures. The massed figures in those scenes were governed by geometric emotional interactions, unlike many prior scenographic depictions, which appeared to be the independent iconic agglomerations, as if independent figures had been glued on to a surface, with no compelling relationship to one another.

The narrative influence of Giotto's frescoes in the Bardi and Peruzzi Chapels in Santa Croce in Florence and the Arena Chapel in Padua can be seen in these and other works of the lower church at Assisi. The Lorenzetti brothers and their contemporary competitor from Florence, Giotto, but also his followers Bernardo Daddi and Maso Di Banco, seeded the Italian pictorial revolution that extracted figures from the gilded ether of iconic Byzantine art into the pictorial worlds of towns, land, and air. Sienese iconography was generally more mystical and fantastic than the more naturalistic Florentines, and at times, seems to elevate into what appears a modern surrealist landscape.

Lorenzetti’s mature style is epitomized in the triptych "Birth of the Virgin", created in 1342, his last major work. That he used the decorative detail and familial anecdotes as the theme of a major altarpiece is illustrative of his nonhierarchical, humanizing tendencies. Perhaps the most notable feature of the "Birth of the Virgin" is its sophisticated handling of perspective and the logical placement of figures within space. The arches and colonnettes of the triptych frame form the foreground of the painted picture space, and one of the figures is painted in such a way that it appears to be standing behind one of the colonnettes. This constitutes one of the most advanced perspective studies of its time. As the bubonic plague ravaged the area during his time, it is believed that that is how both the Lorenzetti brothers died.

Achievements

• Pietro Lorenzetti was highly famous for his works "Nativity of the Virgin", "Birth of the Virgin", "Crucifixion", and "Adoration of the Magi."

Works

More photos

• painting

  • Predella Panel. The Approval of the New Carmelite Habit by Pope Honorius IV

  • Beata Umiltà Heals a Sick Nun

  • Crucifixion

  • Predella Panel. The Annunciation to Sobac

  • Man of Sorrow

  • Adoration of the Magi

  • A Freanciscan Saint

  • Polyptych

  • Crucifix

  • Madonna with Angels Between St Nicholas and Prophet Elijah

  • St Louis

  • St Sabinus Before the Roman Governor of Tuscany

  • Predella Panel. The Pope Issues a Bull to a Carmelite Delegation

  • Beata Umiltà Transports Bricks to the Monastery

  • A Female Saint

  • Shaped Cross

  • Predella Panel. Hermits at the Fountain of Elijah

  • Predella Panel. St Albert Presents the Rule to the Carmelites

  • Madonna Enthroned with Angels

  • Rowned Female Figure

Membership

Pietro was the member of the Sienese School of painting during the fourteenth century.

Personality

Pietro was the more traditional of the two brothers, showing harmony, refinement, and detail but also dramatic emotion.

Interests

• Artists

  Duccio, Giotto, Simone Martini, Florentine School

Connections

Brother:

Ambrogio Lorenzetti

References

• Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti
  1988
• Pietro Lorenzetti,
  1929
• From the Gothic to the Renaissance (Great Italian Painters): Duccio, Giotto, Simone Martini, Pietro and Ambroglio Lorenzetti, Masaccio, Fra Angelico, Filippo Lippi, Benozzo Gozzoli
  2004
• Pietro Lorenzetti : affreschi nella basilica di Assisi / Testo di Cesare Brandi
  1957
• Pietro Lorenzetti [I Geni E Le Opere-Collezione Diretta Da Ardvino Colasanti]
  1930
• Pietro Lorenzetti
  1967
• Pietro Lorenzetti: l'Opera Completa (Italian Edition)
  1989
• Pietro Lorenzetti
• Pietro e Ambrogio Lorenzetti
  2003
• Pietro Lorenzetti at Assisi
  1982
• Pietro Lorenzetti, a Freschi Nella Basilica Di Assisi
  1959