Matteo Giovannetti

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Altarpieces with St. Catherine of Alexandria and St. Antonius Abbas (approx. 1345)

Matteo Giovannetti (* around 1300 in Viterbo ; † after 1369 ) was an Italian painter .

Life

Matteo Giovannetti grew up in Viterbo. There he was mentioned in 1322 as a priest and later as a canon . Impressed by the art of Simone Martini and the Lorenzetti brothers, he trained as a painter.

In 1343 he followed Martini to the court of the Popes in Avignon and was there under Pope Clement VI. employed as a master of painting. Francesco Petrarca was one of his friends there . In 1344 Giovannetti began designing the Saint Martial chapel, followed by the oratory of the St. Michael chapel in 1345 and the consistory hall and the St. Jean chapel in 1347 . Around 1355 he made on behalf of Pope Innocent VI. the frescoes of the Chartreuse Notre-Dame-du-val-de-Bénédiction in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon .

After finishing his work he returned to Italy in 1367 in the entourage of Urban V and worked on paintings in the Vatican . Giovannetti was mentioned for the last time in 1368.

Work and meaning

In addition to his large-format frescoes, Matteo Giovannetti also made several altar and panel paintings , most of which are lost.

“His highly modern-looking physiognomic interest allowed him to create figures, gestures and head types that broke all previously applicable conventions. Giovannetti could only achieve this through his encounter with art in Avignon. And in this international climate in southern France at the papal court, he became what he was, namely one of the most original painters not only in Italy but also in Europe. In his art there are already ingredients that will define the international Gothic in the first quarter of the 15th century. "

- Gaudenz Freuler

In 2014 two of his altarpieces with depictions of Saint Catherine of Alexandria and Saint Anthony were auctioned at the Kunsthaus Lempertz for € 2,656,000.

literature

  • E. Castelnuovo: Un pittore italiano alla corte di Avignone. Matteo Giovannetti e la pittura in Provenza nel secolo XIV. Einaudi, 1991.
  • R. van Marle: The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, II. Den Haag 1924, p. 317.
  • L. Vertova: Testimonianze frammentarie di Matteo da Viterbo. In: Festschrift for Ulrich Middeldorf. Berlin 1968, pp. 45-51.
  • M. Laclotte, D. Thiébaud: L'école d'Avignon. Paris 1983, pp. 32-48, 166-169.
  • D. Thiébaud: Matteo Giovannetti. In: L'art gothique siennois. Avignon catalog 1983, pp. 189-190.
  • E. Castelnuovo: Un pittore Italiano alla corte di Avignone. Matteo Giovannetti e la Pittura in Provenza nel secolo XIV.Torino (2nd ed.) P. 95, note 5.
  • Alberto Lenza in: La fortuna dei primitivi. Tesori d'arte dalle collezioni italiane fra Sette- e Ottocento. Exhibition catalog Florence 2014, pp. 364–365.

Web links

Commons : Matteo Giovannetti  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gaudenz Freuler, Zurich 2014 cited from the online offer of the Lempertz company.
  2. ↑ Sarah Cascone. artnet news November 19, 2014
  3. ↑ Lot 1007, November 15, 2014 Lempertz company.
personal data
SURNAME Giovannetti, Matteo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian painter
DATE OF BIRTH around 1300
PLACE OF BIRTH Viterbo , Italy
DATE OF DEATH after 1369