Liberation of the Companions of St James

religious

In Avanzi's lunette fresco in the Cappella San Giacomo, the human figures many showing traits of physiognomy and drapery which remind us of Giotto, are dominated by a central mass of rocks. In the foreground a bridge has collapsed, and the persecutors following saint's companions fall into a stream. The floundering horses and humans are represented with striking fidelity.

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Liberation of the Companions of St James

About the Artist

Jacopo Avanzi

Italian painter. At least two painters of this name were recorded in Bologna: a Jacopo di Pietro Avanzi, who was dead by 1378, and one who was paid for a small commission on 13 April 1384. This has led to much confusion. The earliest reference is to a Iacobus Avancini depintor, resident in 1363 in the parish of S Cecilia in the Porta Piera quarter of Bologna. On 28 February 1375 a Jacopo Avanzi witnessed a notarial act and on 23 June 1377 a Jacopo Avanzi was one of several craftsmen paid for a bishop's pallium. In around 1374-76 he painted frescoes from the story of St James in the Chapel of St James (now Chapel of St Felix) in the Sant'Antonio in Padua. The frescoes with the Story of Moses in the church Sant'Apollonia di Mezzaratta in Bologna (now transferred to the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna) are also attributed to him.

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