[260] See ante, p. 14.
[261] See Lett. Sen. p. 279.
[262] Lett. Sen. tom. i. p. 277.
[263] Ibid. tom. ii. p. 69.
[264] Martino was the father of Simone; Memmo or Guglielmo his father-in-law; and in the inscriptions on his pictures he sometimes assumes the one name, and sometimes the other. Benvoglienti.
[265] I conjecture this on the authority of Vasari, who says, that he died in 1345, at the age of 60. In the genuine books at S. Domenico, of Siena, we find this sentence "Magister Simon Martini pictor mortuus est in curiâ; cujus exequias fecimus ... 1344." Since Vasari approaches so near the truth in the time of the painter's death, we may reasonably credit him also in his age. Mancini says he was born about 1270; which gives occasion for P. della Valle to mention Simone as a contemporary, and a competitor of Giotto at Rome. I cannot agree with him on this date, and the information drawn by him from books belonging to the Sienese hospital, that Simone was in Siena in 1344, only a few months before his death, at the court of the Pope at Avignon, strengthens my opinion. I cannot believe that an old man of seventy-four would transfer his residence from Siena to Avignon. If we credit Vasari the difficulty vanishes, inasmuch as Simone, being then scarcely sixty, might be equal to undertake so long a journey.
[266] See Lett. Senesi, tom. ii. p. 101.
[267] There is on it A. D. 1333, Simon Martini et Lippus Memmi de Senis me pinxerunt. It is now in the ducal gallery at Florence. It may be remarked on the chronology of this painter, that where we find not Memmi but only Lippo or Filippo, it does not always seem intended for him. Thus the M. Filippo, who received a sum of money in 1308, and that Lippo, who, in 1361, is said to be the assistant of another artist, (Lett. Sen. tom. ii. p. 110), most probably are not to be identified with Memmi. He was younger than his relation, and according to Vasari, survived him 14 years.
[268] Statuti dell' arte de' Pittori Senesi.
[269] This Guido da Siena is, perhaps, the one mentioned by Sacchetti in his eighty-fourth tale, and of whom there remains a picture in the church of S. Antonio, painted in 1362. Baldinucci.