Simone Martini in Orvieto

'The first English-language publication in 30 years devoted to the resplendent 14th-century Tuscan painter focuses on a single altarpiece owned by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and spins interlocking narratives around it: about the artist himself, about the Umbrian city for which he made important work, about the genre of gold-ground painting he perfected, and about the path that brought the altarpiece to Boston' - New York Times

New insights into the innovative multimedia work and early career of fourteenth-century Italian painter, Simone Martini

Painter to popes, princes, and scions of Renaissance dynasties, Simone Martini (ca. 1284-1344) transformed Western painting with his groundbreaking devotional images and masterful manipulation of gold. This beautifully illustrated book highlights the astonishing novelty of his paintings in terms of their construction, multimedia techniques, and imagery.

A focus of the book-the first on Simone Martini in English in over thirty years-is the work that he produced for churches in the Umbrian city of Orvieto, a papal refuge and stronghold of the Guelph political faction. The publication sheds light on Simone's early career and technical accomplishments with extended catalogue entries for three Orvieto altarpieces and a painting of private devotion, including the results of new scientific analysis for the Gardner works. Leading scholars consider Simone's patrons, artistic accomplishments, and contributions to the development of the polyptych altarpiece.

One of the New York Times' Art Books of the Year, 2022

Details

• Author: Nathaniel Silver, Associate Curator of the Collection, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
• Hardcover: 240 pages | 110 colour illustrations
  
• Date published:  October 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9780300262247
• Dimensions: 29.1 x 23.3 cm