Sassetta

Stefano di Giovanni - il Sassetta

Stefano di Giovanni, known as il Sassetta, (1392 – 1450 or 1451) was an Italian painter. He was born in Siena, although there is also an hypothesis that he was born in Cortona. However, the first historical record of him was in Siena in 1423. Di Giovanni was probably the apprentice of Paolo di Giovanni Fei although it is also thought that he may have studied under Benedetto di Bindo. He painted in the semi-archaic Sienese School style of painting. Francesco di Giorgio e di Lorenzo, better known as Vecchietta, is said to have been his apprentice.

Sassetta, perhaps the greatest of the early 15th century Sienese painters. He mingles an innate conservatism, especially in his architectural structures, with a delight in the svelte forms of International Gothic figure design, and in the clarity and unity of Renaissance pictorial space. The essentially 14th century basis of his style, the dreamlike blending of reality and unreality, of graceful calm and visionary fervour, are all epitomized in his dismembered masterpiece, the double-sided altarpiece of 1337-44 for S. Francesco, Borgo S. Sepolcro (part in the Louvre, Paris and National Gallery, London).

Selected works:

• Meeting of Saint Antonio and Saint Paul /L'incontro di Sant'Antonio e San Paolo, circa 1440, tempera on wood, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.)
• Vision of Saint Thomas of Aquino before the Cross / Visione di San Thomas d'Aquino, (1423, Pinacoteca Vaticana)
• Saint Thomas inspired by the dove of the Holy Spirit / San Tommaso ispirato dalla colomba dello Spirito Santo, tempera on wood, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest)
• The Madonna of the Snows / La Madonna della neve, 1432, Galleria degli Uffizi, Firenze
• A predella of three works at the Detroit Institute of arts
• The Journey of the Magi, (1435, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
• Saint Anthony the Hermit Tortured by Devils, (Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena)
• Virgin and Child Adored by Six Angels, (1437–44, Musée du Louvre, Paris)
• Death of the Heretic on the Bonfire, (1423, Melbourne, Australia)
• Last Supper (1423, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena)
• Ecstasy of Saint Francis, (1437–44, Villa i Tatti, Settignano)
• The Miracle of the Eucharist
• Saint Francis receiving stigmata, (1437–44, National Gallery, London)