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Sorry I didn’t post anything at the weekend, but it was my birthday yesterday so I was busy celebrating!!!  I’m also performing in a musical every evening this week (I’m playing a dancing sailor in Anything Goes – there weren’t enough men for the male parts…) so I will try to post again, but otherwise it may have to wait until the show is over!!

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Name: Simone Martini
Work: Painter
Born: 1284
Died: 1344
Hometown: Siena, Italy
Period: International Gothic
Influences: Giotto, Duccio, French manuscript illumination

What I have learnt about his work in general:
Simone Martini was another religious painter of the 14th Century, painting frescoes and altarpieces.  Like Duccio and Giotto he used depth and dimension in his paintings, while he also developed the use of soft features and lines with graceful human figures and expressions creating a sense of elegance and serenity.  This gentleness of colour and line is in keeping with the Sienese style of the time, which contrasted with the much more sober and rigid Florentine style.

Simone Martini

Annunciation with St. Margaret and St. Ansanus (wooden triptych), Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi (Martini’s brother-in-law)
1333
Uffizi Gallery, Florence

My interpretation of this painting:
This painting portrays the moment the angel Gabriel appears to the Virgin Mary to announce that she will give birth to Christ.  I think Simone Martini chose to keep to the traditional style of alterpiece painting, presenting the scene simply and clearly upon a gold background, but he added a sense of realism through the expressions (the Angel has a look of intense importance while Mary looks afraid and almost a little reluctant at her surprise guest) and through the small details of the room (the plants, Mary’s book, the tiled floor etc.).  In keeping with the Sienese style, Martini uses soft lines and colours to give a sense of sophistication and elegance.