NARRATOR:
Francesco de Giorgio Martini was one of the most remarkable creative minds in 15th-century Siena. A painter, engineer, and theorist, he was also a skilled diplomat, who worked at the courts of Naples, Milan and Urbino. At the time Francesco made this painting, he was also one of Italy’s leading architects, famed for his palaces and military fortifications.
This fresco, now transferred to canvas, originally decorated a civic building or private residence in Siena. An elaborate stamped border frames the full-length figure of Fidelity, who is standing on a dog, the symbol of faithfulness. As she points down at him with one hand, she points upward towards heaven with the other, implying that the trust between master and servant resembles that between God and his children. Her rhythmically curved figure almost seems to levitate—a common way to suggest that she personifies an abstract idea.
Francesco is often credited with introducing the innovations of contemporary Florentine artists, like Verrocchio or Botticelli, to Siena. Their work is reflected in the scale and naturalism of this picture. In keeping with their work, Francesco softened the crisp lines typical of the Sienese school with subtle light and shadow, so that, for example, the fall of drapery suggests a real body beneath.
Fidelity
c. 1485
Francesco di Giorgio Martini (Italian, 1439-1501/02)
On View
A painter, sculptor, architect and military engineer, Francesco di Giorgio typified the ideal of the Renaissance man. As the outstanding artistic personality in Siena during the first half of the fifteenth century, he chose a style that combined the refined elegance of the Sienese tradition with the most forward-looking innovations of the Florentine school.
This fresco, transferred to canvas, exemplifies a popular interior decoration of the Renaissance: the cycle of famous persons and the allegorical personifications of the virtues. Here, Faith is identified by the collared dog ("fidelitas") on which she stands, a symbol of fidelity. The pair exchange a devoted glance as Faith points heavenward with her right hand and to the dog with her left. This image implies that the trust and loyalty shared between a master and servant also exists between God and the devout.
Details
- Artist Name: Francesco di Giorgio Martini (Italian, 1439-1501/02)
- Title: Fidelity
- Date: c. 1485
- Medium: Fresco transferred to canvas, mounted on wood panel
- Dimensions: 49-1/2 x 29-3/4 in. (125.7 x 75.6 cm)
- Credit Line: The Norton Simon Foundation
- Accession Number: F.1965.1.022.P
- Copyright: © The Norton Simon Foundation
Object Information
Maurice Leclanché, Paris (sale, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 23-25 May 1892, lot 47, ill., as Ecole Florentine, Figure allégorique de la Fidélité, to);
Georges Chalandon, Paris, still in 1905.
R. Langton Douglas, London (1864-1951).
Otto H. Kahn, New York (d. 1924);
Mogmar Art Foundation, New York, sold 6 September 1949 to;
[Duveen Bros., New York, orig. stock no. 12764, stock no. 30093, sold 1965 to];
The Norton Simon Foundation.
Georges Chalandon, Paris, still in 1905.
R. Langton Douglas, London (1864-1951).
Otto H. Kahn, New York (d. 1924);
Mogmar Art Foundation, New York, sold 6 September 1949 to;
[Duveen Bros., New York, orig. stock no. 12764, stock no. 30093, sold 1965 to];
The Norton Simon Foundation.
Fourteenth and Fifteenth Century Frescoes
- New York, Duveen Brothers, 1958 to
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- Brinton, Selwyn, Francesco di Giorgio Martini of Siena,pl. 9 pp. 33-34, 109
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- McComb, Arthur, Art Studies,fig. 24 p. 21
- Berenson, Bernhard, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, Central and North Italian Schools, p. 140
- Jacobsen, Emil, Das Quattrocento in Siena. Studien in der Gemäldegalerie der Akademie, p. 96
- Van Marle, Raimond, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting,fig. 140 p. 262
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