Pietro Lorenzetti: Introducing Naturalism
Friday, January 21, 2022 at 9:00AM 
Pietro Lorenzetti - “Beata Umiltà Heals a Sick Nun” - c. 1341 - Panel, 45 x 55 cm - Staatliche Museen, Berlin (click photo for larger image)Sienese painter Pietro Lorenzetti (c. 1280/90-c. 1348) was an Italian Gothic artist who, with his brother Ambrogio, was the principal exponent of Sienese secular art in the years before the Black Death and also created numerous religious works. It’s possible that he was a student of Duccio. He advanced that master’s achievements by imbuing his work with greater intimacy and emotion, and by introducing naturalism into Sienese art.
The image featured here is from a panel that is part of a dismembered polyptych representing scenes of the life of Beata Umiltà (Blessed Humility). The altarpiece was in the Convent of the Donne di Faenza in Florence. It was signed and dated, however, the repainted date has been variously read as 1316 and 1341. The latter interpretation is most widely accepted since the calmness of the narration points towards the later activity of the master.
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