Page:Biographical catalogue of the principal Italian painters.djvu/197

 166 SIENA— SIGNORELLI. immediate predecessors, Pietro di Puccio, and others. The productions of the Sienese painter are, however, though superior to any Sienese works of their time, vexy inferior to those of the great Florentine master; nor did he approach Bellini or Perugino, hotli his contemporaries. The draperies of Matteo are disposed with greater atten- tion to nature than was customaiy at that period ; and though his heads are not beautiful, says Lanzi, their expres- sion is well varied; and he was atten- tive in indicating the muscles and marking the veins in his figures. His favourite subject seems to have been the Massacre of the Innocents; and this composition is his master-piece. He has repeated it several times: there are- four such pictures now attri- buted to him, two at Siena, one at Naples, and one at Schleissheim. Eugler describes the composition as very mannered, with few features of real power, and for the most part in an exaggerated style. Matteo resided some time at Naples, about 1468, and was one of the first to lead the Nea- politan School to attempt a less anti- quated style. Dominid compares his works with those of Lo Zingaro. Lanzi remarks that Matteo really in- vented the marble chiaroscuro or painting, by using various coloured marbles for the different portions of the figures, &q. He thus executed a portion of the pavement in the cathe- dral at Siena, in which he again in- troduced his favourite subject, the Slaughter of the Innocents. There was another Matteo da Siena, called Matteino, who painted chiefly landscapes, and died at Home in the Pontificate of Sisto Y. about 1588. Works, Naples, the Stu4) Gallery, the Massacre of the Innocents, from the church of Santa Gaterina aFor- mello. Siena, Sant' Agostino, the same subject (1464); and again in Santa Maria de' Servi (1491) : San DomenicOy the Madonna and Child, with St. Bar- bara and other Saints, and a Dead Christ in a lunette above (1479) : Ija Concezzione, the Coronation of the Virgin. Berlin Gallery, two small pic- tures in temperay of the Virgin and Child, with Saints. SIENA, UooLiNO DA, d. old at Siena, 1339. Sienese School. One of the earliest of the Tuscan painters, and who adhered to the old Byzantine type. Vasaii does not mention his master, but notices his celebrated work, the large altar-piece of the church of Santa Croce, afterwards removed to the dor- mitory of the convent, and eventually sold, and it came in part into the posses- sion of Young OtUey. This is the only authentic work of Ugolino now known. Waagen describes some of the com- partments, in which are represented half-length figures of saints, and seven small scenes firom the Passion, from the Last Supper to the BeRurreetiont forming the Predella pictures. The style of these portions constitutes the transition between the severer manner of Duccio, inclining to the Byzantine, and the softer, more agree- able manner of Simone Memmi: all are on a gold ground. In the male saints the Byzantine element is most discernible, long and hard in features and in drapexy; while, especially in the scenes of the Passion, the forms are fuller, there is freer action, and a much gayer treatment of colour than is common in Byzantine works, mow resembling the light tempera of Giotto. On one of the compartments of the Predella is inscribed Ugolimu de 8enu me pinxit. SIGNORELLI, Luca, called, also, LuGA DA CoBTONA, 6. at Cortoua about 1441, d. at Arezzo after 1524. Tuscan School. This great pamter, the most distinguished of his time, was the son of Egidio SignorelU, and a scholar of