Annunciation (detail)

1482 · Loggia del Comune, Collegiata, San Gimignano

religious

It was supposedly Bastiano Mainardi, using the design of his brother-in-law, Domenico Ghirlandaio, who painted this fresco of Annunciation about 1482 in his native town of San Gimignano. This is largely a poor imitation of Leonardo's famous Annunciation. Only the lectern, the details of which are reminiscent of Flemish still-lifes, shows originality.

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About the Artist

Bastiano Mainardi

1466 – 1513

Bastiano (Sebastiano) Mainardi, Italian painter, the brother-in-law of Domenico Ghirlandaio. Vasari mentioned that Mainardi was a pupil of Domenico Ghirlandaio and that he was still working in the studio at the time of his master’s death. Vasari also claimed that Mainardi collaborated with Ghirlandaio on several works between 1475 and 1477, including the fresco decoration of the chapel of S Fina in the Collegiata, San Gimignano, and on the frescoes in the abbey of Passignano in Val di Pesa, near Florence. Given the dates of these works, it was thought that Mainardi was born between 1450 and 1460 and that he was, if not a contemporary of Ghirlandaio’s, certainly one of his earliest collaborators, together with Ghirlandaio’s brother Davide. The discovery that Mainardi was born in 1466 (Venturini) would suggest that the two painters’ relationship was that of master and pupil, at least until the early 1480s. Certainly Mainardi could not have collaborated on the frescoes in the Collegiata.

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