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
Prima Mostra mercato internazionale dell'antiquariato
- Florence, Palazzo Strozzi, 1959-09-12 to 1959-10-11
Major Masters of the Renaissance
- Rose Art Museum, 1963-05-03 to 1963-06-09
[on loan]
- New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1966 to 1969
[on loan]
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1969 to 1973
[on loan]
- Detroit Institute of Arts, 1974-11-08 to
Art of Tuscany: Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture
- New York, Duveen Galleries, 1963-11 to 1963-12
[on loan]
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1965 to
Lock, Stock and Barrel: Norton Simon's Purchase of Duveen Brothers Gallery
- Norton Simon Museum, 2014-10-24 to 2015-02-16
- Migeon, Gaston, Les Arts, p. 28
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- Sutton, Denys, Apollo, no. 14, color pl. XIV pp. 186, 193
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- Venturi, Adolfo, L'Arte, p. 53
- Perkins, F. Mason, Rassegna d'arte senese, 1907, p. 81
- Jacobsen, Emil, Das Quattrocento in Siena. Studien in der Gemäldegalerie der Akademie, 1908, p. 96
- Berenson, Bernhard, The Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance, 1909, p. 170
- Perkins, F. Mason, Rassegna d'arte, 1912, p. 102
- Schubring, Paul, Cassoni: Truhen und Truhenbilder der italienischen Frührenaissance in Beitrag zur Profanmalerei im Quattrocento, 1915, under no. 460 p. 327
- McComb, Arthur, Art Studies, 1924, fig. 24 p. 21
- Venturi, Adolfo, Le Muse, 1924, p. 200
- Douglas, R. Langton, La Balzana, 1927, p. 105
- Comstock, Helen, International Studio, 1931, pp. 31, 34
- Van Marle, Raimond, La Diana, 1931, p. 173
- Berenson, Bernhard, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, 1932, p. 202
- Brinton, Selwyn, Francesco di Giorgio Martini of Siena, 1934, pl. 9 pp. 33-34, 109
- Weller, Allen Stuart, Francesco di Giorgio 1439-1501, 1943, fig. 93 pp. 107, 185, 226-228, 301, 305
- Pope-Hennessy, John, Sienese Quattrocento Painting, 1947, pl. LXXIX, fig. 20 pp. 32
- Prima Mostra mercato internazionale dell'antiquariato, 1959, p. 86
- Perocco, G., Emporium, 1960, p. 24
- Berenson, Bernhard, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, Central and North Italian Schools, 1968, p. 140
- Beltrame Quattrocchi, Enrichetta, Disegni toscani e umbri del primo Rinascimento dalle collezione del Gabinetto Nazionale delle Stampe, 1979, fig. 15 pp. 35-37
- Toledano, Ralph, Francesco di Giorgio Martini, Pittore e Scultore, 1987, no. 38 pp. 100-101
- Christiansen, Keith, Painting in Renaissance Siena 1420-1500, 1988, under no. 75a p. 347
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. D19 p. 442
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