Guccio di Mannaia (Malnaia; Malnaggia; Manaie; Mannaie) was an Italian goldsmith from Siena, Italy active from 1288 to 1322. He is best known for a 13th-century decorated gold-plated chalice which contains the first documented use of translucent enamels using the technique known as basse-taille. [1] [2]
Little is known about the life of Guccio di Mannaia, and very few works are attributed to him with certainty. He came from a family of Sienese goldsmiths, with his brother (Pino) as well as his three sons (Montigiano, Mannaia, and Jacopo) working in the same trade. [3] He was influenced by Pace di Valentino who was the first Sienese goldsmith working for the papal court (under popes Nicholas III, Martin IV, Honorius IV, and Boniface VIII). [4] In addition, he seems to have been familiar with northern European artworks, such as the Westminster retable in England and the miniatures in illuminated manuscripts of the Parisian Master Honoré, to which the human figures in his work are often compared. [5] [6] [7] It is certain that he was actively working until 1322 though he was dead by 1329. [8]
Guccio di Mannaia engraved four seals from 1292 to 1318 for which receipts of payment exist, and although one of these works is now lost the other three survive. He was well known in Siena, his city of origin, and received numerous official commissions; [3] it is likely that the number of seals produced under his direction was vast. [9]
Guccio di Mannaia's only signed work is a chalice "of extraordinary importance and quality" [2] made in 1288-1292 at the request of Pope Nicholas IV for the Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi. The base and knop were made of gold-plated silver using the lost-wax method, while the cup, made of the same material, was created through embossing. It contains technical details including finely wrought repoussé leaves with other metalwork features that mark it as "Tuscan Gothic"; [1] both its form and technique were widely copied. [10] In addition, the chalice is decorated with ninety-six translucent and semi-translucent enamels. [11] The enamels depict images of the crucifixion, the Virgin and child, symbols of the evangelists, several Franciscan saints (Saints Francis, Clare, and Anthony), Pope Nicholas himself, as well as angels, apostles, and prophets. The range of enamel colors includes azure, violet, yellow-gold, green, brown, and blue, and in various places the chiselling and engraving of the metalwork reveals the silver underneath the gold plating. [12] His signature (Guccius Mannaie de Senis fecit) as well as the name of the commissioning Pope (Niccholaus Papa quartus) are contained in sixteen of the enamels that circumscribe the chalice’s stem. Commissioned by the first Franciscan pope, the chalice with its imagery is part of the vast decorative project that includes the frescoes and stained glass windows of the Basilica. An inventory from 1430 of the Basilica, where the chalice is still kept, contains a reference to a paten, now lost, that was decorated with a scene of the Last Supper, similar in style to the chalice. [2] Other works attributed to him are done so based only on comparison to the chalice rather than other documentary evidence, and can be found in museums in Florence, Siena, Paris, and Berlin. [10]
Guccio di Mannaia's work would influence many other goldsmiths of the era, and his chalice would become a "fundamental model for the production of chalices in the decades to come." [2] Tondino di Guerrino, another goldsmith from Siena, most likely studied under him as an apprentice. An image from one of Guccio's seals, that of the rulers of Siena known as the Signori Nove, [8] was reproduced by Simone Martini in his grand Maesta, [3] a fresco that covers an entire wall in the Palazzo Pubblico of Siena. Other imagery from this same seal, specifically the orb held by the Madonna and child, can be found also in the gilded-glass panel of a wooden reliquary [13] from about 1347. The gilded glass panel is in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, while the wooden frame is in the Cleveland Museum of Art. [14] In addition, his work would anticipate that of Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti. [15]
The Sienese School of painting flourished in Siena, Italy, between the 13th and 15th centuries. Its most important artists include Duccio, whose work shows Byzantine influence, his pupil Simone Martini, the brothers Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti and Domenico and Taddeo di Bartolo, Sassetta, and Matteo di Giovanni.
Simone Martini was an Italian painter born in Siena. He was a major figure in the development of early Italian painting and greatly influenced the development of the International Gothic style.
Jacopo della Quercia, also known as Jacopo di Pietro d'Agnolo di Guarnieri, was an Italian sculptor of the Renaissance, a contemporary of Brunelleschi, Ghiberti and Donatello. He is considered a precursor of Michelangelo.
Pietro Lorenzetti or Pietro Laurati was an Italian painter, active between c. 1306 and 1345. Together with his younger brother Ambrogio, he introduced naturalism into Sienese art. In their artistry and experiments with three-dimensional and spatial arrangements, the brothers foreshadowed the art of the Renaissance.
Lorenzo di Pietro, known as Vecchietta, was an Italian Sienese School painter, sculptor, goldsmith, and architect of the Renaissance. He is among the artists profiled in Vasari's Le Vite delle più eccellenti pittori, scultori, ed architettori.
For the village near Livorno, see Sassetta, Tuscany
Ventura di Archangelo Salimbeni was an Italian Counter-Maniera painter and printmaker highly influenced by the vaghezza and sensual reform of Federico Barocci.
Basse-taille (bahss-tah-ee) is an enamelling technique in which the artist creates a low-relief pattern in metal, usually silver or gold, by engraving or chasing. The entire pattern is created in such a way that its highest point is lower than the surrounding metal. A translucent enamel is then applied to the metal, allowing light to reflect from the relief and creating an artistic effect. It was used in the late Middle Ages, and then again in the 17th century.
The Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels is a papal minor basilica situated in the plain at the foot of the hill of Assisi, Italy, in the frazione of Santa Maria degli Angeli.
The Master of the Osservanza Triptych, also known as the Osservanza Master and as the Master of Osservanza, is the name given to an Italian painter of the Sienese School active about 1430 to 1450.
Siena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.
The Pinacoteca Nazionale is a national museum in Siena, Tuscany, Italy. Inaugurated in 1932, it houses especially late medieval and Renaissance paintings from Italian artists. It is housed in the Brigidi and Buonsignori palaces in the city's center: the former, built in the 14th century, it is traditionally identified as the Pannocchieschi family's residence. The Palazzo Bichi-Buonsignori, although built in the 15th century, has a 19th-century neo-medieval façade based on the city's Palazzo Pubblico.
The Treasure Museum of the Basilica of Saint Francis contains a collection of sacred art that is on display in two halls found on the northern side of the Cloister of Pope Sixtus IV which is part of the Sacro Convento in Assisi, Italy. The entrance is found on the second level of the Renaissance cloister behind the apse of the Basilica of Saint Francis, which houses the remains of St. Francis of Assisi. Since 1986 the museum has also displayed a collection of works donated to the Conventual Franciscan Friars by the Secular Franciscan and American art critic, Frederick Mason Perkins, who died in Assisi in October 1955.
Cesare Sermei was an Italian painter. Son of painter Fernando Sermei, he learned to paint in the workshop of Cesare Nebbia, primarily moving between Orvieto and Rome.
The Reliquary of the Santo Corporale of Bolsena is a medieval artwork made by Sienese goldsmith Ugolino di Vieri in 1337-1338. The reliquary is made of gold-plated silver and enamel and is c.139 cm high. The reliquary was recently transferred to the cathedral museum from the cathedral itself where it had been from the time of its creation.
Pace di Valentino was a Sienese goldsmith active from 1257 to 1296. Little is known about his early life, but he was probably born between 1230 and 1235. Though working chiefly in Siena, he also was established for a time in Pistoia, and received numerous commissions from different popes.
Frederick Mason Perkins was an American art historian, critic, and collector.
Pietro di Giovanni D'Ambrogio was an Italian painter of the Sienese school.
The Oratory of the Compagnia di San Bernardino is a place of worship in the Piazza San Francesco in Siena. Elevated to minor basilica status in 1925 by Pope Pius XI, it adjoins rooms housing the diocesan museum. It is notable for its frescoes from various 16th- and 17th-century Sienese painters like Sodoma and Domenico Beccafumi. The oratory is almost adjacent to the Basilica of San Francesco, Siena.
Giuseppe Paoloucci was an Italian composer, conductor and organist of Baroque music.
Few works of art ... achieve such a level of consistency among formal, decorative, iconographic and functional elements. / Poche opere d'arte ... raggiungono una tale coerenza tra l'elemento formale, decorativo, iconografico e funzionale.
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