XX. SAMSON AND THE PHILISTINES (No. 14)
14. 1434. Domenico di Bartolo di Ghezzo da Asciano.
We find the name of this artist on the Roll of Sienese Painters in 1428. Vasari would have us believe, that he was the nephew of Taddeo Bartoli. This, however, is proved to be erroneous, because we know that Taddeo was the son of a barber, one Bartolo di Maestro Mino: that his brother died childless; and that his sister Petra married a notary of Radicondoli, named Ser Antonio Gennari. Domenico Bartoli was a member of the well-known Ghezzi family of Asciano, and a picture by him is still to be seen in the Church of St. Agostino in his native town. He was born about 1400, married in 1440[156] Donna Antonia Pannilini, and died in 1446.[157] He was an artist of very great merit. His finest works are his frescoes in the Pellegrinaggio of the Hospital of Sta. Maria della Scala at Siena, which were painted in 1443–44.[158] These frescoes throw a vivid light on the manners, customs, costume, and style of architecture of the period in which he lived, and form a remarkable picture of Sienese life at that date. It is, moreover, most interesting to note how much the decorative effects, employed by him in his work, foreshadow the coming Renaissance.
ALINARI PHOTO.]
[BY DOMENICO DI BARTOLO D’ASCIANO
XXI. THE EMPEROR SIGISMUND (No. 13)
15. 1434. Giacomo d’Antonio.
Appears to have been merely a workman (manovale), as, except the record quoted, no other notice appears of him among those hitherto extracted.