TADDEO BARTOLI,[1] PAINTER, OF SIENA.
[born 1363—died 1422.]
Artists who have endured heavy labours in the hope of acquiring fame from the art of painting, deserve that their works should be placed, not in a dark unfavourable position, for which the works themselves receive blame from those whose j udgment extends no farther; but rather in situations of honour, and where the advantages of light and air permit them to be properly seen, and duly appreciated; as have been and still continue to be, the works of Taddeo Bartoli, a Sienese master, painted for the chapel of the palace of the Signory in Siena.
Taddeo was the son of Bartolo di Maestro Fredi,[2] who was a painter of mediocre reputation in his day, and who decorated one entire wall of the capitular church of San Gimignano (on the left hand of the entrance) with stories from the Old Testament. On this work — which, to say the truth, is not a very good one—we may still read the following epitaph: Ann. Dom. 1356, Bartolus Magistri Fredi de Senis me pinxit.” At this time Bartolo must have been very young, since, in another picture, executed in the same place, also by him, but in the year 1388, we perceive that he had acquired a much better manner, both in design and colouring. This work is in the church of Santr Agostino, on the left hand as you enter the church by the principal door; the subject is the Crucifixion of Our Lord, with certain saints. Some of the heads are tolerably good, but the feet of the figures are in the old manner. Many other works from the hand of Bartolo are to be seen in the same district.[3]
But to return to Taddeo: having been appointed, as we have said, to paint the chapel in the palace of the Signory,[4] in his native city of Siena, as the best master of his time, the
- ↑ For many valuable observations respecting this artist and his works, the reader is referred to Rumohr, Italienische Forschungen, vol. ii, p. 218.
- ↑ The various questions raised with regard to the name, etc., of this painter, are discussed in the Lettere Sanesi of Della Valle, vol. ii, p. 197, et seq.
- ↑ Few remains of this work now exist.
- ↑ The paintings in this chapel are still in good preservation; as, to the honour of the Sienese people, are many others of much older masters. See Della Valle, Rumohr, etc.
