active from 1315 -1344 · Siena, Naples and Avignon

Elegant lines, gold backgrounds and refined emotion make Simone Martini one of the major figures of international Gothic.

Simone Martini was active in Siena from 1315 and died in Avignon in 1344. Trained in the culture of Duccio, he developed a personal language based on line, precious color and a very fine observation of attitudes. His Maestà of the Palazzo Pubblico affirmed his authority in Sienese civic space very early on. In Naples, he painted Saint Louis of Toulouse crowning Robert of Anjou, an image where holiness and dynastic legitimacy respond to each other. His polyptychs combine autonomous panels, golden architecture and overall rhythm. The Virgin and Child retains a restrained tenderness; the Annunciation takes the exchange of the angel and Mary to an exceptional degree of elegance and tension. Simone also worked in Assisi then at the pontifical court of Avignon, where he became friends with Petrarch. His mastery of tempera, gold punching and drawing gives surfaces a richness that never excludes psychology. With him, the Sienese tradition becomes a European language: graceful, narrative and capable of transforming the lightest gesture into an event. The "Simone Martini" selection notably compares Saint Louis of Toulouse crowns Robert of Anjou and Polyptych of Saint Catherine of Alexandria. His reading favors details.

Simone Martini gives the gesture a musical value: a hand, a fold and a look are enough to make the entire gold background vibrate.