Works by Simone Martini

Simone Martini of Siena (c. 1284–1344) painted in a soft, flowing and decorative manner with a courtly air, which owed much to French illuminated manuscripts and carved ivories.

He is thought to have trained under Duccio di Buoninsegna, though Giorgio Vasari named Giotto as his teacher instead. Little record of his life survives, and many works given to him are disputed. Among the first that are documented is the Maestà of 1315 in Siena's Palazzo Pubblico, and his brother-in-law Lippo Memmi soon painted a similar one for San Gimignano. He also worked in Naples at the king's request and in Assisi, and he died at Avignon in 1344 while working for the pope's court; Petrarch had become his friend there.

Only paintings follow, most of them single saints or the Virgin and Child. The Angel of the Annunciation, c. 1330, kneels with a leafy sprig in hand, its robe patterned in gold against a tooled gold ground. In Saint Luke, from the early 1330s, the evangelist writes his Gospel while a tiny winged ox stands guard by the inkpot; the gilded frame is the panel's original. In Christ discovered in the temple, dated 1342, Joseph holds out a hand to the seated Mary while the boy Jesus stands with his arms folded over a book.

Sources: Wikidata, Wikipedia, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, J. Paul Getty Museum, National Gallery of Art, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Walker Art Gallery.