Bartolomeo Bulgarini

Bartolomeo Bulgarini: The crucifixion of Christ. Italy, around 1330. Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Bartolomeo Bulgarini (also Bartolomeo Bolgarini , * around 1300 or 1310 in Siena ; † September 4, 1378 ibid) was an Italian painter of the Sienese school . Before he could be identified by name and his work categorized, some of his pictures in art history were grouped under the emergency names Ugolino Lorenzetti or Meister von Ovile .

Life

Bartolomeo Bulgarini was a painter who probably mainly worked in Siena , who is documented several times between 1337 and his death in 1378. He must have been an extraordinary artist, because even Giorgio Vasari still announced his fame. Nevertheless, for a long time it was not possible for art history to attribute works to him. Only a document from the 18th century made it possible to assign Bulgarini one of the so-called Biccherna tablets for the city of Siena, which is now in the city's state archives , in 1353 . For stylistic reasons, two more Biccherna panels can be assigned to this panel, which were painted in 1329 and 1339 and are now in the Berlin Museum of Applied Arts and in the Bibliothèque nationale de France .

In 1936 Millard Meiss tried to compile a catalog of Bulgari's works on the basis of the Biccherna panel in Siena. The boards in Berlin and Paris were not yet known to him. Meiss' attention fell relatively quickly on a group of works that Bernard Berenson had compiled for the first time in 1917, which he ascribed to an anonymous master, whom he gave the emergency name Ugolino Lorenzetti . The basis for the naming was the fact that the pictures by this unknown master are stylistically close to both the works of Ugolino di Nerio and those of Pietro Lorenzetti , so that Berenson created a new one from their names. This name was taken up by further researchers and enriched by further works. However, there were also some researchers who were of the opinion that the works brought together under the emergency name Ugolino Lorenzetti were created by two artists. The pictures removed from the group of works were attributed to a master by Ovile . It was soon recognized, however, that this division of works was completely unfounded and that all these works had been created by just one artist who is stylistically close to the Biccherna panel documented for Bartolomeo Bulgarini.

In the meantime, the opinion is becoming more and more prevalent in the professional world that behind Ugolino Lorenzetti and the master of Ovile there is none other than the well-documented Bartolomeo Bulgarini.

Selected Works

• Berlin, Kunstgewerbemuseum
  • The Cistercian monk Don Niccolò in his office. 1329 (attributed)
• Cambridge, Massachusetts, Fogg Art Museum
  • The birth of christ.
• Columbia, Columbia Museum of Art
  • The Lamentation of Christ.
  • Saint Mary Magdalene. around 1360
• Esztergom, Keresztény Múzeum
  • Moses. around 1350
  • The prophet Daniel. around 1350
• Florence, Collezione Berenson
  • The crucifixion of Christ.
• Frankfurt am Main, Städelsches Kunstinstitut
  • The Blinding of Saint Victor.
• Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum
  • Mary enthroned with the child. around 1350
  • Saint Peter. around 1350
  • Saint Matthew. around 1350
  • Saint Francis.
• Madrid, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum
  • Mary enthroned with the child, a martyr, St. John the Baptist and four angels. around 1350-1360
• New York. Metropolitan Museum of Art
  • Saints Matthias and Thomas. around 1350
• St. Petersburg, Hermitage
  • The crucifixion of Christ.
• Siena, Pinacoteca Nazionale
  • The Assumption of Mary.
  • Saint Ansanus.
  • Saint Galganus.
  • The Assumption of Mary.
• Washington, National Gallery of Art
  • Saint Catherine of Alexandria. around 1335

literature

• Miklos Boskovits: “Early Italian Painting”, catalog of the Trecento panels in the Berlin Gemäldegalerie, Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1987
• Judith de Botton: "Note sur Bartolomeo Bulgarini", Revue de l'art. Paris 1975.
• Millard Meiss:  BULGARINI (Bolgarini), Bartolomeo. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 15:  Buffoli-Caccianemici. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1972.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Bernard Berenson: Ugolino Lorenzetti . In: Art in America 5 (1917), pp. 259-275 and 6 (1918), pp. 25-52

Web links

Commons : Bartolomeo Bulgarini  - collection of images, videos and audio files