View of a wall

1446 · Chiesa della Santissima Annunziata, Ospedale di Santa Maria della Scala, Siena

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Vecchietta worked in both miniature and monumental styles, so that works carried out in the same years for the sacristy of the Ospedale di Santa Maria della Scala, Siena, show differing forms of expression. The painted panels of the sacristy's reliquary cabinet are by at least two artists, but those on the exterior bearing local Sienese saints are closer to Vecchietta's style: Blessed Agostino Novello and Blessed Catherine of Siena are certainly autograph panels. Although damaged, the frescoes of 1446-49 show a contrasting spaciousness.

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About the Artist

Vecchietta

1410 – 1480

Vecchietta (Lorenzo di Pietro di Giovanni), one of the outstanding Sienese artists of the 15th century, a painter, sculptor, architect, and military engineer. He was formerly believed to have been born c. 1412 in the Tuscan town of Castiglione d'Orcia, but in 1970 he was identified with the Lorenzo di Pietro di Giovanni who was baptized in Siena in 1410. He was probably trained by Sassetta, but he also came under the influence of Florentine art and his large-scale paintings have a monumentality rare in Siena in the quattrocento. As a sculptor he worked in wood and marble and late in his career in bronze, this change in medium reflecting the influence of Donatello, who was in Siena 1457-59. The Risen Christ (Sta Maria della Scala, Siena, 1476) has something of Donatello's sinewy expressiveness. Donatello's influence may also account for the strength and plasticity of Vecchietta's later paintings, such as the St Catherine in the Town Hall, Siena, and the Assumption in Pienza Cathedral, both dating from 1461/2. Another side to Vecchietta's talent is seen in his delightful illuminations in a manuscript of Dante's Divine Comedy (British Library, London, c.1440).

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