The Sienese Style

Ventura Salimbeni - Descent into Limbo - 1600-10 - Oil on canvas, 69 x 55 cm - Private collection (click photo for larger image)Ventura Salimbeni (1568-1613) was first taught painting in his native Siena by his father. Ventura possibly spent some time in northern Italy before going to Rome, where he worked from 1588, collaborating on the fresco decoration of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (the Vatican Library) during the reign of Pope Sixtus V. In 1595 he returned to Siena where he became one of the last leaders of the Mannerist school, and completed painting cycles for Sienese churches such as Santa Trinità and Santo Spirito. He continued to create paintings for churches throughout Italy, including Assisi and Florence. For almost all of his painting cycles he first created detailed preparatory drawings. In the work featured here, the distinctive palette of soft hues of pink, yellow and purples is reminiscent of fellow citizen artist Domenico Beccafumi. An enduring influence of Giuseppe Cesari can be also be detected in the figure types, notably that of Eve, rendered in the immediate left foreground of the scene.