Matteo di Giovanni

Matteo di Giovanni c. 1430 - 1495) was an Italian Renaissance artist from the Sienese school.

Biography

Matteo di Giovanni di Bartolo was born in Borgo Sansepolcro around 1430.This survey of Matteo di Giovanni's career is based upon that given by Alecia Holland Harper for an entry in Charles R. Mack, European Art in the Columbia Museum of Art, including the Samuel H. Kress Collection, Vol. I: The Thirteenth through the Sixteenth Century, 105-06 His family relocated to Siena and he is firmly associated with the art of that city. Matteo was twice married—first in 1463 to a wealthy noble woman and, after her death, to a rich widow, who made it possible for Matteo to buy real estate and by whom he fathered many children.

Documentation concerning the early phases of Matteo's life and career as an artist is scanty and nothing is recorded about his apprenticeship. Left to conjecture, we might imagine him as having been trained in the workshop of sculptor/painter Lorenzo di Pietro, better known as Vecchietta but he clearly was influenced by Stefano di Giovanni, called Sassetta and Domenico di Bartolo. The miniaturist Girolamo da Cremona and the Florentine painter Antonio del Pollaiolo also seemed to have contributed to Matteo's distinctive style. In 1452, Matteo entered into partnership with the painter Giovanni di Pietro, and the two shared living quarters in the San Salvatore neighborhood of Siena in 1453. That Matteo, at this time, is recorded as...
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