Domenico di Bartolo | Art in Tuscany | Podere Santa Pia, Holiday house in the south of Tuscany

Domenico di Bartolo

Domenico di Bartolo (c. 1400/1404 – 1445/1447) was an Italian painter of the Sienese School. He was born in Asciano. According to Vasari, he was a nephew of Taddeo di Bartolo. He was born in Asciano. In the early 1400s, the Sienese artist most influenced by the new Florentine style of painting was Domenico di Bartolo. He was, in fact, the only Sienese painter of his day to receive commissions from Florentine clients. Domenico di Bartolo was employed by Vecchietta in the masterpiece fresco The Care of the Sick in the Pellegrinaio (Pilgrim's Hall) of the Ospedale di Santa Maria della Scala in Siena. It portrays wealthy donors visiting the hospital to men washing the ill, and a fatty friar hearing confession. He painted one of the most beautiful panels of the Early Renaissance, the Madonna dell' Umiltà. It is signed and dated 1433 and is one of the earliest truly Masaccesque paintings for which we have a firm date. Domenico di Bartolo must have had some crucial experience in Florence in the 1420s, because his Virgin of Humility of 1433 reveals close connections with the art of Donatello, Masa&ccio, Luca della Robbia, and Filippo Lippi. Domenico di Bartolo's major surviving achievement is his participation in a series of frescoes in the Pellegrinaio, the hall for pilgrims at Siena's Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala. The Frescoes have unusual secular subjects, which deal with the charitable, civic, and medical activities of the hospital. The Gothic vaulting of the room determined the arched openings. The settings are sometimes the rooms of the hospital itself. In their naturalism and their wealth of imagery drawn from contemporary life, these frescoes provide remarkable insight into Sienese activities. In 1434, Domenico di Bartolo also painted a fresco panel of Emperor Sigismund Enthroned for the Siena Cathedral. He was the tutor of Piero della Francesca. Domenico died in Siena around 1445.
The Madonna dell' Umiltà

Domenico di Bartolo, Madonna dell’umiltà, Siena, Pinacoteca Nazionale

The impact of Masaccio's new vision had a limited impact on Siena, since for the most part, Siena maintained a distinct stylistic tradition of its own. A Sienese artist who does seem to have been affected by Masaccio, perhaps mediated by the art of Filippo Lippi, is Domenico di Bartolo. His art is exemplified by this signed and dated work of 1433, which contains passages of trompe l'oeil including the banderole with writing on it. The grouping of the figures and the roundness of the faces, particularly the one of the angel who tilts his head sharply, are reminiscent of Filippo Lippi's painting in Empoli. Like the paintings of Fra Filippo Lippi of apparently the same years, the coherent and rational light of Masaccio is not fully understood, but the massive figures and an interest in robust bodily proportions and in the nude provide a strong link to Masaccio. The motive of the Child sucking his fingers occurs in Masaccio's Pisa Altarpiece. Madonna of humility refers to artistic portrayals of the Virgin Mary which depict her as a Madonna sitting on the ground, or sitting upon a low cushion. She may be holding the Child Jesus in her lap. The term Virgin of humility is also used to refer to this style of depiction. Domenico di Bartolo's Madonna of humility, painted in 1433, was described by art historian Andrew Ladis as one of the most innovative devotional images from the early Renaissance.The formal symmetry of the strips below her feet and those hovering above her express the symbolic duality of her nature: an earthly woman, as well as a heavenly queen. Despite the low seating position, the star and the gems as well as the halo signify her regal status. In this painting, which is at the Pinoteca Nazionale in Siena, Domenico does not use cast shadows as he does in other works such as the Madonna Enthroned.		Domenico di Bartolo, Madonna dell’umiltà
Domenico di Bartolo's fame is tied to the fresco cycle in the Pellegrinaio (pilgrims’ ward) of the hospital of Santa Maria della Scala in Siena (1440-1444), where he recounts the history and life of the hospital in an artistic language that ranges from International Gothic overtones to compositions showing a Flemish realism. Many great Sienese artists worked for Santa Maria della Scala at some time, making it the city's third important centre of art, together with the Duomo (cathedral) and the Palazzo Pubblico (Town Hall). But the most prestigious example of Sienese art in the Santa Maria della Scala complex, is the Pellegrinaio ward or 'pilgrims' hospice', built in the second half of the 14th century and decorated almost a century later with an important fresco cycle devoted to the history of the hospital. Artistic Treasures include a famous fresco cycle (now lost) with Histories of the Virgin, on the façade, by Simone Martini, Ambrogio and Pietro Lorenzetti (1335); the series of frescoes with the Stories of the Hospital in the Pellegrinaio Hall, by Domenico di Bartolo and Lorenzo Vecchietta. Domenico di Bartolo's frescoes have unusual secular subjects, which deal with the charitable, civic, and medical activities of the hospital. The Gothic vaulting of the room determined the arched openings. The settings are sometimes the rooms of the hospital itself. In their naturalism and their wealth of imagery drawn from contemporary life, these frescoes provide remarkable insight into Sienese activities. In the six bays of the hall, two frescoes on the east wall (The Enlargement of the Hospital; Extension of Privileges by Celestine III), and four on the north wall (Feeding of the Poor; Raising and Marrying of Orphans; Reception of Pilgrims and Distribution of Alms; Caring for the Sick) were executed by Domenico di Bartolo.		Santa Maria della Scala served as a hospital from the 10th Century until 1996.


Domenico di Bartolo, Care of the Sick, 1441-42, fresco in Spedale di Santa Maria della Scala, Siena
In the Care of the Sick Domenico combines specific portraiture with a sensitive treatment of the nude figure. The unidealized bodies of the sick man being placed in bed and the wounded man being washed rank among the most naturalistic figures in Quattrocento painting.

Reception of Pilgrims and Distribution of Alms

Domenico di Bartolo, Almsgiving, ca. 1444, fresco in Pellegrinaio of the Ospedale di Santa Maria della Scalla, Siena
The Rearing and Marriage of Female Foundlings
This fresco The Rearing and Marriage of Female Foundlings is located on the west wall of the Pellegrinaio in the Spedale di Santa Maria della Scala. Domenico di Bartolo's The Marriage of the Foundlings features a large carpet with a Chinese-inspired phoenix-and-dragon pattern, 1440. The painting combines two sacraments: matrimony and almsgiving. Right image: Phoenix-and-dragon carpet, Anatolia, first half or middle of the 15th century.[2]		Phoenix and dragon carpet Anatolia first half or middle 15th century

Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saint Peter and Saint Paul, c. 1430. Samuel H. Kress Collection This small panel is one of the first in Siena to reflect the innovations of the Florentine painter Masaccio. Masaccio used light and perspective to give his figures weight and three-dimensionality, a sense of being in a space rather than simply on a painted surface. Domenico lit his scene from a source that comes strongly and consistently from the upper left, giving his Virgin and child a tactile reality. Their halos, tilted in perspective, help define the space. So does the niche behind them, which is inspired by ancient architecture. Domenico's use of light, perspective, and classical motifs suggest that he painted this after seeing the work of Masaccio and others in Florence. He is unlikely to have studied there, however; other elements of his work are typically Sienese, for example, the bright pastel pinks for the niche. Domenico's experiments were not taken up by his contemporaries, but they did influence artists in the next generation.'[1]
[1] Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saint Peter and Saint Paul (c. 1430) - Tempera on panel, 53 x 31 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington, USA [2] Oriental carpets in Renaissance painting \| Carpets of Middle-Eastern origin, either from the Ottoman Empire, the Levant or the Mamluk state of Egypt or Northern Africa, were used as important decorative features in paintings from the 14th century onwards. Such carpets were often integrated into Christian imagery as symbols of luxury and status of Middle-Eastern origin, and together with Pseudo-Kufic script offer an interesting example of the integration of Eastern elements into Renaissance painting and of Islamic influences on Christian art. Most carpets use Islamic geometric designs, with the earliest ones also using animal patterns such as the originally Chinese-inspired "phoenix-and-dragon", as in Domenico di Bartolo's Marriage of the Foundlings (1440). These had been stylised and simplified into near-geometric motifs in their transmission to the Islamic world. They have disappeared from paintings by about the end of the 15th century. Only a handful of original animal-pattern carpets survive, mostly also from European churches, where their rarity presumably preserved them.
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Monte Oliveto Maggiore abbey	Abbey of Sant 'Antimo	Montalcino


Siena, duomo	Siena, Palazzo Sansedoni	Siena, Piazza del Campo


Crete Senesi, surroundings of Podere Santa Pia
Podere Santa Pia is located in south of the ‘Crete Senesi’, a beautiful clay hills landscape which is an ideal starting point to discover Tuscany. The guesthouse is located in Castiglioncello Bandini, a charming medieval village situated on a hill, which offers a spectacular view on the Valle dell’Ombrone and the Maremma. Montalcino, the abbey of Sant'Antimo, Pienza and the Crete Senesi with Asciano, Buenvonvento and the Abbey Di Monte Oliveto Maggiore are within easy reach. With its gothic influences, Siena is often called the most beautiful city of Tuscany. This medieval city amidst the olive yards and the Chianti, consists of narrow streets and small squares. The city contains Toscana’s most photographed place, the “Piazza del Campo”. Twice a year, this square is the venue for the colourful “Palio”, a horserace wherein each ‘fantino’ (participant) competes for the honour of its ‘contrada’ (quarter). The Abbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore, a large Benedictine monastery, is located 36 km south of Sienna and 10 km south of Asciano, in the characteristic "badlands" landscape of the Crete Senesi. The Olivetan community traces its foundation to 1313. The monastery is accessed through a drawbridge which leads to a medieval palace in red brickwork, surmounted by a massive quadrangular tower with barbicans and merlons. The Chiostro Grande ("Great Cloister") has a rectangular plan and was realized between 1426 and 1443. On the oldest side it has a two-storey loggia and a pit, dating to 1439. Under the vaults of the cloister are frescoes of the Life of St. Benedict painted by Luca Signorelli and il Sodoma, considered amongst the most important Renaissance artworks in Italy. The frescoes disposition follows St. Gregory's account of Benedict's life. Signorelli's paintings were executed in 1497-98, while Sodoma's date to 1505 afterwards. The Chiostro di Mezzo ("Middle Cloister") was built in the 15th century, surrounded by a portico with octagonal pilasters. Artworks include a 15th century Madonna with Child and Angels and Annunciation by Riccio. Nearby is the entrance to the refectory, decorated by frescoes by Fra Paolo Novelli (1670) and, in the end wall, a canvas of the Last Supper by Lino Dinetto (1948). The church entrance is preceded, in the Chiostro Grande, by a frescoes with Jesus Carrying the Cross, Jesus at the Column and St. Benedict Giving the Rule to the Founders of Monte Oliveto, also by Sodoma.