around 1400 -1447 · First Renaissance and Sienese school

However, a new perspective, attentive gestures and observation of daily life place Domenico di Bartolo in the decisive transition from Sienese Gothic to the Renaissance.

Born around 1400 in Asciano or in its territory, Domenico di Bartolo belongs to the generation which renews Sienese painting through contact with Florentine research. It retains the linear elegance, precious backgrounds and fervor inherited from international Gothic, but introduces more solid volumes, a constructed perspective and direct attention to human attitudes. Its activity is documented in Siena, Perugia and elsewhere in Tuscany. Its most famous ensemble is the cycle of frescoes of the Pellegrinaio of the Santa Maria della Scala hospital, executed in the 1440s. Scenes such as the care of the sick describe the audience with unusual precision, hospital architecture, staff gestures and patient diversity. His Virgins and Children combine emotional sweetness and new monumentality. Domen in 1447, Domenico di Bartolo leaves relatively few works preserved, but his role is major in opening Siena to the innovations of the first Renaissance. The "Domenico di Bartolo" selection notably compares Care of the Sick and Virgin and Child. His reading favors composition.

Domenico di Bartolo brings real life into Sienese painting: perspective orders space, but human gestures give it its meaning.