Catherine of Siena , a lay member of the Dominican Order, was a mystic, activist, and author who had a great influence on Italian literature and the Catholic Church. Canonized in 1461, she is also a Doctor of the Church.
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.
Il Sodoma was the name given to the Italian Renaissance painter Giovanni Antonio Bazzi. Il Sodoma painted in a manner that superimposed the High Renaissance style of early 16th-century Rome onto the traditions of the provincial Sienese school; he spent the bulk of his professional life in Siena, with two periods in Rome.
Domenico di Pace Beccafumi was an Italian Renaissance-Mannerist painter active predominantly in Siena. He is considered one of the last undiluted representatives of the Sienese school of painting.
Domenico di Bartolo, born in Asciano, Siena, was a Sienese painter who became active during the early Renaissance period. As documented on text by famous painter, writer and historian Giorgio Vasari, Domenico di Bartolo was the nephew of well reputed Italian artist Taddeo di Bartolo, who is featured in Vasari's Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects. By the early 1400, Domenico di Bartolo was one of the most influenced Sienese artist by the new Florentine style of painting. During the time that he was active and working, Domenico was the only Sienese painter to have received commissions by clients in Florence. Domenico was also employed by Lorenzo Vecchietta, otherwise referred to as Lorenzo di Pietro, to work alongside him for the fresco The Care of the Sick, which is today considered a masterpiece of the Pilgrim's Hall in the hospital Santa Maria della Scala (Siena).
Ventura di Archangelo Salimbeni was an Italian Counter-Maniera painter and printmaker highly influenced by the vaghezza and sensual reform of Federico Barocci.
Francesco Rustici, called Il Rustichino was an Italian painter active in Siena. He worked on commissions for the local churches as well as from the Grand-Dukes of Tuscany. In his work he shows a preference for nocturnal effects which reveals the influence of Caravaggio and his followers, the so-called Caravaggisti.
Nativity of the Virgin is an oil on panel painting by Domenico Beccafumi, now in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Siena. Painted for Santi Pietro e Paolo, it has been dated to 1540-1543 by its stylistic similarities to the paintings produced by the artist on Moses and the evangelists for Pisa Cathedral and to some scenes from the pavement of Siena Cathedral. It may have originally had a predella - Sammniatelli identifies the predella's panels as a number of paintings now in a private collection in Somerset.
Tanaquil is an oil on wood painting by Domenico Beccafumi, which depicts Tanaquil, a queen of Rome. The work was painted by Beccafumi c. 1519 for the bedroom of Francesco Petrucci, Lord of Siena, part of a series which also included Marcia. In the work the queen is depicted together with only broken architecture and dead plants, she is seen pointing to a tablet which identifies her as Tanaquil.
The Sarteano Annunciation is an oil on canvas painting by Domenico Beccafumi, executed c. 1546. It is located in the church of San Martino in Foro in Sarteano, Italy.
Self-Portrait is a c. 1525–1530 oil painting by Domenico Beccafumi, using a support of card pasted onto canvas. It forms part of the collection of artist's self-portraits at the Uffizi in Florence, Italy. It entered the gallery in 1682 by which time it had been expanded on all four sides to fit a frame or to make it a pendent to another work.
The Choice of Hercules or Hercules at the Crossroads is a c.1520-1525 oil on canvas painting by Domenico Beccafumi, now in the Museo Bardini in Florence. It is strongly influenced by Baldassarre Peruzzi's frieze at the Villa Farnesina, placing it after Beccafumi's possible trip to Rome around 1512.
Coronation of the Virgin is an oil on canvas painting by Domenico Beccafumi, executed c. 1539, now in the Pinacoteca nazionale in Siena.
The Bellanti Madonna is oil on canvas painting by Domenico Beccafumi, executed c. 1515. Long attributed to Girolamo del Pacchia, Vigni reattributed it as a youthful work by Domenico Beccafumi in 1936, an attribution accepted by most other later art historians. Heavily influenced by Michelangelo, its oval format is also influenced by Raphael's Madonnas, as are other Beccafumi works of the period such as the Madonna and Child in his Saint Paul Enthroned. Previously in the Bellanti collection, it is now one of several works by Beccafumi in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Siena, including another Madonna and Child from 1514.
Saint Paul Enthroned is an oil on canvas painting by Domenico Beccafumi, now in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Siena. It is dated to c. 1515 due to its style, before his St Catherine of Siena Receiving the Stigmata and after his trip to Rome, where he had come into contact with Sodoma and Florentine artists of the period - the figure of the saint draws on the prophets in Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling whilst those in the background draw on Dürer and Piero di Cosimo.
The San Martino Nativity is an oil on canvas painting by Domenico Beccafumi, executed c. 1524. It is named after the church of San Martino in Siena, where it still hangs over the altar in the funerary chapel of its commissioner Anastasia Marisli - she died in 1524.
Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist is an oil on canvas painting by Domenico Beccafumi, executed c. 1521-1522, now in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, which it entered in 1850. It was previously acquired from the casa Marsili in Siena in 1816 for 975 scudi for Prince Ludwig.
Saint Michael Defeats the Rebel Angels or Fall of the Rebel Angels is an oil on canvas painting by Domenico Beccafumi, executed c. 1524, now in the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena. It was begun for San Niccolò al Carmine, Siena, but left unfinished, with the artist completing another version for the same church in 1526. Vasari's Lives of the Artists mentions the work, stating the artist wished to create "a new invention to show the virtue and good conceits of his soul".
Saint Catherine of Siena Receiving the Stigmata is an oil on canvas painting by Domenico Beccafumi, executed c. 1515, now in the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena.
Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine is an oil on canvas painting by Domenico Beccafumi, with the dimensions of 347 by 225 cm, executed c. 1528, now in the Palazzo Chigi-Saracini in Siena.
