Annunciation with St. Margaret and St. Ansanus

Annunciation Wikipedia Creative Commons

In Giorgio Vasari’s The Lives of Artists, the author describes the importance of everlasting fame over riches. For the happiest men are those who are not only inclined to the arts but who happen to live in the time of a famous writer from whom, in return for a small piece of art may on occasion receive, through his writings, the reward of eternal honor and fame. This everlasting fame in the form of writing is imperative for artists that work in the field of design, “for their works, being executed upon surfaces within a field of color, cannot possess the eternal duration that bronze casting and marble objects bring to sculptor or buildings to architects.”

Words out of Archangel Gabriel

It is therefore Simone Martini’s greatest fortune that he was alive in the time of Petrarch, and who, in exchange for a painting of his love, immortalized Martini in two sonnets. For according to Vasari, Petrarch’s sonnets have immortalized the artist more than all of his works did. Nevertheless, Martini was a ‘good painter’, an apprentice of Giotto who learned his master’s style and made a name for himself in the court of the pope.

Virgin Mary

One of Martini’s greatest works, and one that is greatly overlooked by Vasari is the Annunciation with St. Margaret and St. Ansanus, completed in 1333. Vasari does not go into much detail about the specifics of the work but speaks of Martini’s collaboration with his brother Lippo Martini on the piece. The panel is a wooden triptych, adorned with many Gothic elements and rich with gold leaf. The large central panel depicts the annunciation when the Archangel Gabriel delivers the message to the Virgin Mary. Martini takes this literally: he has words flowing from the angel's mouth to Mary. Gabriel is carrying an olive branch, an international symbol of peace, and pointing to the white dove flying overhead, a symbol of the Holy Spirit. To the left of the central panel is Ansanus, patron saint of Siena and to the right St. Giulitta. The use of realistic elements such as the book, vase, crown, and, above all, of the perspective of the pavement are a substantial detachment from the one dimensionality typical of Greco-Byzantine art. Another large departure from Byzantine art is the perspective of the figures. Whereas Byzantine figures were usually depicted front facing, in this scene Mary is actually turning away, thereby capturing a moment rather than a set up scene. It was this talent that earned him the commission to paint Petrarch in Avignon after which his fame was made.