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Sano di Pietro, the Prolific Artist

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By Anthony Miller

February 7, 2023
6:31 pm
Los Angeles, CA

"If you’ve been waiting for an invitation, this calligraphy is it. Commissioned by Facebook, this is a hand-lettered design for a poster. Quote is Facebook mine "

- Massimo Vignelli

Sano di Pietro was one of the most prolific and successful Sienese painters, the head of a workshop that satisfied the demands of civic and religious institutions in the city as well as those of private devotion. His production, technically always of a very fine quality, rich in decorative effects, and characterized by a brilliant palette, often contains motifs that appear monotonous and repetitive. Although in 1428 he was already listed in the guild of Sienese painters, his work is well documented in its various stages only from 1444 (Gesuati polyptych) until his year of death (Pietà, Monte dei Paschi collection in Siena, 1481), whereas the question of his early activity is still open for discussion. Esteemed in the nineteenth century literature as a sort of Fra Angelico of

Sano di Pietro, “The Annunciation Angel, (detail), Avignon, Musée du Petit Palais. (Photo: travelingintuscany.com)

Esteemed in the nineteenth century literature as a sort of Fra Angelico of Sienese painting and considered by some a typical representative of Sienese quattrocento mysticism, Sano is much less appreciated by twentieth-century criticism. In 1931 Bernard Berenson called him “the most monotonous, the most spiritless, the most vapid” of the city’s artists,[3] and almost all twentieth-century scholars feel that his production after the Gesuati polyptych of 1444 (Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena, no. 246), which remains his earliest certain work, bears witness to a gradual but inexorable decline in his creative imagination and artistic capability.

In reality Sano’s development in the decades around the mid-century, marked by numerous dated works, is in no way lacking in paintings of high quality. Particularly fine examples are his miniatures, notably those done for the Opera della Metropolitana in Siena from 1445, for the monks of Monte Oliveto Maggiore between 1459 and 1463, for the Spedale della Scala in Siena, and for the duomo of Pienza around 1462. But also in other kinds of painting–a fresco for the office of the Biccherna in Siena; in 1448 the predella of the altarpiece for the chapel in Palazzo Pubblico; in 1449 the Scrofiano polyptych (Sinalunga; now in the Pinacoteca in Siena, no. 255); in 1456 the Pope Callixtus III (Pinacoteca, Siena, no. 241); in 1458 the polyptych in San Giorgio at Montemerano (Grosseto); in 1462 the altarpiece for the duomo of Pienza–the artist reveals gifts of narrative fantasy and chromatic freshness, although his manner remains deeply rooted in the habits and tastes of early Renaissance painting in Siena and appears little inclined toward renewal.

Along with works on a monumental scale, he produced numerous small panels, in response to the religious needs of a wide audience, and particularly to the spiritual tendencies represented in the Franciscan observance movement promoted by Saint Bernardino and the Sienese order of the Gesuati.

The proposal to identify the works of his youth as those gathered under the conventional name of the Master of the Osservanza, which, having the triptych dated 1436 in the Basilica dell’Osservanza in Siena as their point of departure, cover the period from the third decade of the century to 1444, has been rejected by many scholars, who prefer to consider the author of the 1436 triptych and works with similar characteristics an artist quite distinct from Sano, mainly because of their generally very fine quality. In 2002, however, Miklós Boskovits (author of the NGA systematic catalogue entries associated with the artist) is inclined, along with several other scholars, to accept the hypothesis first proposed by Berenson and Brandi identifying the Master of the Osservanza as the young Sano.

In his long and prolific career Sano di Pietro produced an impressive number of paintings, today scattered among he world’s leading museums.

Sano di Pietro, Beheading of St John the Baptist, Pushkin Museum, Moscow. (Photo: travelingintuscany.com)

The panels The Massacre of the Innocents, The Adoration of the Magi, and two others probably formed the predella of an altarpiece, probably that of the “Purification of the Virgin” formerly in the cathedral of Massa Marittima. The pictures, from about 1470, are typical of Sano’s popular, conservative approach to painting, appreciated by the Franciscan order.

Sano di Pietro, Assumption of the Virgin, about 1447-1452, tempera and gold on panel, Altenburg, Staatliches Lindenau-Museum. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons )

This panel was part of a predella consisting of five scenes from the life of the Virgin. The predella was commissioned in 1448 from Sano di Pietro for an existing altarpiece in the Capella dei Signore in the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena. It is assumed that this altarpiece is identical with that painted by Simone Martini around 1326, and now dispersed in various collections.

The predella consist of the following scenes:
Birth of the Virgin (University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor)
Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple (Pinacoteca Vatican, Rome)
Return of the Virgin (Lindenau-Museum, Altenburg)
Marriage of the Virgin (Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome)
Assumption of the Virgin (Lindenau-Museum, Altenburg)

In the lower part of the Assumption of the Virgin, St Thomas is depicted in a strongly reduced scale. He is kneeling before the open tomb to receive the miraculous girdle of the Mother of God.

Sano di Pietro | Madonna of Mercy

The Virgin of Mercy is a subject in Christian art, showing a group of people sheltering for protection under the outspread cloak of the Virgin Mary. It was especially popular in Italy from the 13th to 16th centuries, often as a specialised form of votive portrait, and is also found in other countries and later art, especially Catalonia and Latin America. In Italian it is known as the Madonna della Misericordia (Madonna of Mercy).
The oldest extant version is a small 13th Century piece by Duccio. The most famous example is The Madonna della Misericordia or The Polyptych of Misericordia, an altarpiece by Piero della Francesca in the Pinacoteca Comunale of Sansepolcro. Usually the image, whether in sculpture or painting, stands by itself, but in the Madonna della Misericordia altarpiece in Sansepolcro by Piero della Francesca, of 1445-62, the subject is the central panel of a large altarpiece, with a smaller Crucifixion above it, and many other panels.
the Virgin shelters a group of nuns, including two novices with uncovered head.

Saint Bernardino preaching in Siena before the Palazzo Publico. He is using a prop, a painting of the Name of Jesus inscribed in the Sun, a vision he claimed to have seen. Notice how the congregation is segregated between men and women.

Preachers frequently played major roles as unofficial influential powers in Florence and abroad. Long before Savonarola’s famous regime, the preachers had enormous influence on the politics and culture of Florence. Saint Bernardino of Siena and Saint Antonine influenced popular opinion greatly across class lines, which in turn, shaped government policy.
The Franciscan monk Saint Bernardino of Siena (1380 -1444) was, during his lifetime, one of the most successful and popular preachers in Italy.? He often gave sermons to audiences that were so large that they could not be accommodated within churches.? On many occasions he preached outside in squares and marketplaces, from pulpits especially constructed for him as appears in this picture.

Madonna and Child. Sano di Pietro. ca. 1448–60. (Photo: Metropolitan Museum of Art/Public Domain)

Says The Met of this work: With their faces gently pressed together, the interaction between the Virgin and Christ Child evokes a tender intimacy. This compositional motif appears in numerous works by Sano di Pietro and his workshop (for example, in another painting in the Lehman Collection, 1975.1.51). Sano was a popular and highly prolific Sienese painter and illuminator, whose workshop produced numerous devotional images of the Madonna and Child, frequently shown in bust-length. The close stylistic affinities between works attributed to Sano and the enigmatic Sienese artist known as the Osservanza Master may indicate that they represent a single artistic identity. It is also possible that the paintings attributed to the Osservanza Master are the product of a collaborative workshop to which these artists belonged. It has been suggested that the present panel may have been painted by one of Sano’s pupil’s, the Sienese artist Francesco di Giorgio, following the compositional model of his master.

Saint Francis. Sano di Pietro. 1450s. (Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Public Domain)

Says The Met of this work: With his right hand, Saint Francis opens the plain brownish-gray habit of his monastic order to reveal the wound in his side, which along with those on his hands, represent the marks of the stigmata, the wounds of the crucified Christ which were miraculously imprinted on his hands, feet, and side. This panel and another in the Lehman Collection, which depicts a similar figure of San Bernardino (1975.1.46), originally belonged the same (unidentified) altarpiece complex, and likely appeared at the base of the pilasters. The two Lehman panels resemble the pilaster panels of the triptych painted by Sano di Pietro in the Basilica of San Bernardino all’Osservanza in Siena.
Sano was a popular and highly prolific Sienese painter and illuminator. The close stylistic affinities between works attributed to Sano and the enigmatic Sienese artist known as the Osservanza Master (so-named after the above-mentioned triptych in the Osservanza in Siena) may indicate that they represent a single artistic identity. It is also possible that the paintings attributed to the Osservanza Master are the product of a collaborative workshop to which these artists belonged.

Original publication: Art in Tuscany