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Ambrogio
Lorenzetti

Italia • 1295−1348

Biography and information

Worked in Siena and Florence, was recorded in the workshop of the Florentine painters. Among his many works are especially remarkable Grand frescoes, written by him together with his brother between 1337 and 1339 on the walls of Siena hall. In Orvieto Ambrogio Lorenzetti painted with frescoes the main chapel in the Cathedral of Santa Maria. Along with Duccio Buoninsegna and Simone Martini, Ambrogio Lorenzetti is the largest Italian painter of the first half of the 14th century. The exact date of his death is unknown. According to one version, according to unconfirmed sources Ambrogio died in 1348 during the epidemic of plague.

Date of birth Ambrogio Lorenzetti, as well as date of birth of his brother Pietro, is unknown. Art historians refer it to 1290 m years. Giorgio Vasari in his Biographies of the most famous painters of the" dedicated Ambrogio small but very flattering Chapter, describing him as a man of philosophic turn of mind, who "endured with the spirit of moderate and calm good and evil, given by fate." To 1319 year name Ambrogio Lorenzetti nowhere to be found. His first signed and dated work - "Madonna with Child" (1319, Museum of religious art in San Casciano Val di Pesa). And already in this early work there is interest Ambrogio not so much to traditionally Siena melodious lines, as to the volume and mass. Madonna in this picture monumental, it looks frozen in suspense. The influence of Giotto and Arnolfo di Cambio can be traced and in his later works. Interest Ambrogio Lorenzetti to the achievements of the Florentine school was reflected in his numerous visits to Florence. The first time his stay in this city documented in 1321, however, the role of the debtor. In 1328-30 years Ambrogio already ranks among the members of the Florentine Corporation "Arte dei Medici e SPE" (Guild Association of doctors and pharmacists, which began to enter and artists). In 1330 Ambrogio writes fresco "Miesta" in the chapel itself to the Church of S. Agostino in Siena. Limited space did not allow the wizard to deploy the subject; he depicted melancholic Madonna with child, and eight saints, forthcoming before the throne. Fresco is simple and unpretentious, but the figures have already seen big natural, which is characteristic of his later works, in particular, of the frescoes in the Palazzo Pubblico. In this period, apparently, Ambrogio freed from excessive Florentine dependence, and produces its own individual style, which is characterized as a master image space, and found the point of equilibrium between the transfer amount and beauty line. These new properties are painted works created Lorenzetti in 1330 - 40s years. In 1335, Ambrogio together with his brother Pietro creates frescoed facade of Santa Maria della Scala in Siena, in which depicted Scenes from the life of Mary". About these frescoes according to Vasari, but they, unfortunately, did not survive. About 1340 he writes fresco "Miesta" in the loggia Siena hall Palazzo Pubblico, which has reached our days in an unsatisfactory condition. After Simone Martini, who was in h years as if the official painter of the Sienese government, at the invitation of the Pope went to Avignon for the work over the new papal residence, his place again, semi-official, took Ambrogio Lorenzetti. Probably so he 1337 received a large order at the painting hall of Nine (the main hall of the government) in Siena Palazzo Pubblico. Fame Ambrogio as highly skilled masters of painting by the time it spread through Tuscany. To the last of his works created after the frescoes in Siena, the town hall, are two magnificent works - "Bringing in the temple, which he wrote for Ospedaletto in Monna Agnese (1342, and now Florence, Uffizi), and the "Annunciation", which once stood in Siena, the town hall (1344, Siena, Pinakothek). This Mature work, written with the confident hand of a great master, with beautifully drawn architectural surroundings and perfectly placed figures in the "Bringing in the temple, and the contours of embossed angel and the mother of God at the Annunciation.

Along with Duccio and Simone Martini, Ambrogio Lorenzetti is the largest Italian painter of the first half of the XIV century. The date of his death is unknown. According Siena traditions Ambrogio died in 1348 during the epidemic of plague in one year with his brother Pietro.