St Bernardino Preaching in the Campo

1445 · Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena

religious

On 20 May 1444 the celebrated Sienese Franciscan friar Bernardino Albizzeschi died in Aquila. Although unable to secure his physical remains, the Sienese government and the local Franciscan Observants immediately mounted an energetic campaign to have him recognised as a saint. On 7 June the prior and councillors of the Compagnia della Vergine were authorised to spend as much money as they deemed necessary for an image to celebrate the memory of Bernardino.

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About the Artist

Sano Di Pietro

1406 – 1481

Italian painter and illuminator, active in Siena, where he was pupil and follower of Sassetta. . In 1428 he was listed in the guild of painters in Siena just before Sassetta. The same year he was paid for gilding and colouring a Baptism (untraced), possibly Sassetta's design for the Siena Baptistery font made in 1427. In 1432 he assessed Sassetta's Virgin and Child with Saints (the Madonna of the Snow; Florence, Pitti), and after Sassetta's death in 1450, Sano completed works left unfinished by him, including the fresco of the Coronation of the Virgin over the Porta Romana (1458–66), Siena, and the St Francis (Siena, Pinacoteca Nazionale). He painted many scenes from the life of St Bernardino, including St Bernardino Preaching in Siena Cathedral.

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