Giovanni di Paolo (painter)
Giovanni di Paolo was a notable Italian painter from the early Renaissance, predominantly active in the fifteenth century. Born in Siena, Italy, around 1399 to 1403, he is recognized for his distinctive and imaginative style that often depicted religious figures and events. Giovanni began his artistic career around 1417, initially creating illuminated manuscripts before evolving into a painter known for his vibrant colors and elongated forms. His works often reflected a dreamlike quality, which set him apart from his contemporaries.
While he was not fully appreciated during his lifetime, his art gained renewed recognition in the early twentieth century, particularly by expressionist critics who valued his abstract qualities. Giovanni's most acclaimed works include altarpieces and predella panels, with highlights such as the Branchini Madonna and scenes from the life of John the Baptist. His legacy endures through numerous pieces housed in major museums around the world. Giovanni di Paolo passed away in 1482 or 1483, and today he is regarded as a significant figure in Sienese painting, with his contributions celebrated in exhibitions like "The Shimmer of Gold" at the Getty Museum.
Giovanni di Paolo (painter)
Painter
- Born: c. 1403
- Place of Birth: Siena, Italy
- Died: 1482
- Place of Death: Siena, Italy
Significance: Giovanni di Paolo was a fifteenth-century Italian artist known primarily for his paintings of religious figures and events and his illuminated manuscripts. During his career, he painted with a unique, almost expressionistic, style that escaped his contemporaries' respect. In the early twentieth century, however, critics rediscovered his works and began to view them with new appreciation.
Background
Giovanni di Paolo di Grazia, often referred to simply as Giovanni, was born in Siena, Italy. He lived in a nearby town called Poggio dei Malvolti. As a result, he is sometimes known as Giovanni del Poggio. Little is known about Giovanni's early life. Some sources indicate that he was born as early as 1399, while others place his birth date as late as 1403. Historians believe that Giovanni studied under Taddeo di Bartolo, a renowned Italian painter who was also born in Siena.
By 1417, Giovanni was working as an artist. Records indicate that during that year, he was commissioned to produce an illuminated manuscript. An illuminated manuscript is a written work decorated with elaborate initials, intricate borders, and miniature illustrations. This first work, now lost, was a book of hours, which is a Christian devotional book featuring text, prayers, and psalms.
Another early work was The Triumph of Venus, which he painted on a wedding casket in 1421. The flat top of the drum-shaped casket features a large image of Venus with a cupid hovering over each shoulder. Below her, musicians play for a maiden, who is most likely the bride. The rounded sides of the casket feature dogs chasing stags and boars.
Life's Work
As Giovanni's career progressed, he began to develop a style very much his own. Although he worked during the early Renaissance, his early style depended more heavily on the Gothic tradition of the fourteenth century than on the new styles that emerged from Florence in the fifteenth century. Later, he began to include rich, vibrant colors and elongated forms, and many of his paintings had an imaginative, dreamlike quality to them. In time, he became one of the most sought-after artists in Siena.
Most of Giovanni's works depicted religious figures and events. He produced pieces for various religious orders and for private patrons who wanted artworks to decorate churches or family chapels. Among his many works were altarpieces, including triptychs (groups of three side-by-side panels connected with hinges) and polyptychs (groups of four or more side-by-side panels connected with hinges); panels for predellas (the bases of altarpieces); graduals (religious songbooks); and devotionals. He is known to have produced just one fresco painting during his career. Many of his surviving works are painted on either wood or parchment.
About 1426, Giovanni's works began to show the influence of Gentile da Fabriano, a prominent artist from central Italy known for painting in the International Gothic style. For example, Gentile da Fabriano's Coronation of the Virgin, which makes use of rich colors and gold, seems to have served as an inspiration for one of Giovanni's masterpieces—an altarpiece painting of the Madonna and child for the Branchini family's chapel in 1427.
Giovanni's painting of the Madonna for the Branchini altarpiece features the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus surrounded by angels. God looks over them, and the Holy Spirit, represented as a luminous white dove, hovers above them. Below Mary, a collection of blossoms is strewn about, and a Latin inscription identifies Giovanni as the painter. Giovanni's use of translucent paint over gold gives the painting an otherworldly shimmer, and the glass gems embedded in Mary's crown add further brilliance to the work. Historians believe that the predella, or base of the altarpiece, featured five smaller panels, four of which have been preserved. They include The Presentation in the Temple,The Crucifixion,The Flight into Egypt, andThe Adoration of the Magi.
Other notable Giovanni works are his predella panels featuring scenes from the life of John the Baptist, which he completed about 1454. Of these, St. John the Baptist Goes into the Wilderness stands out as an example of the evolution of his style. John the Baptist appears in the painting in two different locations: leaving the city gates and climbing a steep mountain into the wilderness. Although the city gate is in the foreground of the picture and the mountain is in the background, John the Baptist is approximately the same size in both locations. The painting is an example of the surreal, abstract quality that began to seep into Giovanni's later works.
Giovanni died in 1482 (some sources say 1483). Following his death, he was largely overlooked. Critics considered his works inferior to those of other Renaissance artists and categorized his unique style as wild and unsophisticated.
Impact
In modern times, Giovanni di Paolo is considered one of the greatest Sienese painters of the Renaissance. Expressionists of the early twentieth century rediscovered his works and celebrated them for their abstract qualities. During his prolific career, Giovanni produced many panels and predellas for altarpieces, which are now dispersed in museums in cities such as Paris, New York, London, Amsterdam, Florence, and Madrid. In late 2016 and early 2017, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles displayed an exhibit of Giovanni di Paolo's works titled The Shimmer of Gold: Giovanni di Paolo in Renaissance Sienna, which featured, among other works, his Branchini Madonna. His Madonna and Child with Saints altarpiece underwent two years of conservation treatment at the New York Museum of Art before returning to display in 2021.
Personal Life
Giovanni di Paolo lived and worked in Siena for his whole life.
Bibliography
"Conserving the Giovanni di Paolo Altarpiece." Met, 8 April 2021, www.metmuseum.org/perspectives/videos/2021/3/Conserving-the-Giovanni-di-Paolo-altarpiece. Accessed 4 Oct. 2024.
"Giovanni di Paolo." National Gallery, www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/giovanni-di-paolo. Accessed 4 Oct. 2024.
"Giovanni di Paolo." National Gallery of Art, www.nga.gov/Collection/artist-info.1343.html. Accessed 4 Oct. 2024.
"Giovanni di Paolo." Web Gallery of Art, www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/bio/g/giovanni/paolo/biograph.html. Accessed 4 Oct. 2024.
"Giovanni di Paolo." Virtual Uffizi Gallery, www.virtualuffizi.com/giovanni-di-paolo.html. Accessed 4 Oct. 2024.
"Giovanni di Paolo (c. 1400–82)." Visual-arts-cork.com, www.visual-arts-cork.com/old-masters/giovanni-di-paolo.htm. Accessed 4 Oct. 2024.
"The Shimmer of Gold: Giovanni di Paolo in Renaissance Siena." J. Paul Getty Museum, www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/giovanni‗di‗paolo/. Accessed 4 Oct. 2024
Szafran, Yvonne, et al. "Giovanni di Paolo's Shimmering Worlds on Parchment and Panel." The Iris, 29 Nov. 2016, blogs.getty.edu/iris/giovanni-di-paolos-shimmering-worlds-on-parchment-and-panel/. Accessed 4 Oct. 2024.