Bartolomeo Bulgarini

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Bartolomeo Bulgarini
Born 1300-1310
Died 1378
Nationality Italian
Occupation Painter
Bartolomeo Bulgarini (1300-1310 – 1378) Bulgarino, Bologhini,[1] was a seminal painter of the Trecento period in Siena both before and after the Black Death.[2]

Early life

Born into a noble family with several members being elected into the Commune, Siena’s central governing body, several times.[3] He is firmly in the Sienese school of painting using a byzantine-esque figuration and traditional gold leaf aesthetic of Sienese painting. With his contemporaries, Simone Martini, Pietro Lorenzetti and Ambrogio Lorenzetti and others he is part of the generations following Duccio. He was the only painter of his generation to be mentioned by Giorgio Vasari.[3]

History

Ugilino Lorenzetti Ste Cathérine

Bulgarini’s oeuvre has seen much controversy in its reconstructions with works formerly attributed to Ugolino Lorenzetti, a composite name constructed by Bernard Berenson referencing the stylistic similarities to Ugolino Da Niero and Pietro Lorenzetti[2] which he attached to a small body of nine paintings believed, to all be by the same unknown Sienese artist. The paintings were grouped on a similar visual fluency, style and formula demonstrating a distinctly “Ugolini-esque” aesthetic.[4] However, of those nine paintings six were later attributed to "The master of the Ovile Madonna" by Ernst Dewald on the grounds of a perceived fundamental stylistic difference he claimed separated the paintings.[4] It wasn’t until Millard Meiss made the argument that the works attributed to both "The master of the Ovile Madonna" and "Ugolino Lorenzetti" might actually be by the same artist, Bulgarini.[4] Much of the difficulty in constructing his oeuvre is due to the lack of documentation needed to establish the Painters authorship and timeline of his work. The only known autographed work by Bulgarini is the St. Victor altarpiece in Sienna Cathedral.[3] It was not until much later when several documents were found and the St Victor Altarpiece was reconstructed that we are able to have a clearer picture of his artistic career.[3]

The St. Victor Altarpiece

The St Victor Altarpiece (1348–1350)[5] in Siena Cathedral was one of four altarpieces depicting the four patrons saints of the city as commissioned by the Commune. The other three altarpieces, St Ansanus by Simone Martini, St Crescentious by Ambrogio Lorenzetti and St Savinus by Pietro Lorenzetti are known because the panels were signed and dated and because of fifteenth century cathedral inventories.[6] However, none of these sources were consistent in mentioning the St Victor Altarpiece. It wasn’t until the late sixteenth century that previously lost inventories made by Guigurta Tommasi named Bulgarini as the painter of the St Victor altarpiece.[6]

Career

The earliest mention of Bulgarini is in 1338 for a payment made for a Biccherna book cover; books containing the financial transactions for the Commune starting in the thirteenth century until the fifteenth century. In 1341 and 1342 he was commissioned for two more covers for consecutive seasons.[3] His career, starting roughly in the 1330s, lasted into the 1370s.[2] His last documented work supposedly signed and dated 1373, which is now lost was a panel painting for the hospital of Santa Maria Della Scala in Siena.[1] Though he was active up until his death in 1378.

The Assumption of the Virgin and Doubting Thomas

Bartolomeo bulgarini, madonna assunta in cielo da un coro d'angeli, da s.m. della scala

The assumption of the virgin with doubting thomas (early 1360s)[3] is a large panel painted by Bulgarini and was part of an altarpiece for the chapel which housed a group of important religious relics acquired by the Ospedale from Constantinople of which included the Virgin’s belt or girdle that she cast down to Thomas.[7] The importance of the relics is reflected in the composition of the panel painted by Bulgarini. Bulgarini’s somewhat unusual portrayal of Thomas with his back to the viewer differs from other iconography of the period, perhaps representing the position of the parishioners and Sienese officiants in worship of the virgin and the recently acquired relics in the newly constructed chapel.[7]

gallery

Bartolomeo Bulgarini. The Berenson Polyptych. 1340s. Villa I Tatti. Florence.
Bartolomeo Bulgarini. The-madonna-and-child-with-saints. about 1335. Siena, Pinacoteca Nazionale
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Bartolomeo Bulgarini - Madonna van de nederigheid

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Miklós Boskovits; Serena Padovani (1990). Early Italian painting: 1290-1470. Sotheby's Publications. ISBN 978-0-85667-381-8. Retrieved 17 May 2012. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Dobrynin, Laura (2006). "Bulgarini, Saint Francis, and the Beginning of a Tradition". MA Thesis. OhIo University. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Judith Steinhoff-Morrison (1990). Bartolomeo Bulgarini and Sienese painting of the mid-fourteenth century. Princeton University. Retrieved 17 May 2012. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Meiss, Millard (1931). "Ugolino Lorenzetti". The Art Bulletin 13 (3): 376–397. doi:10.2307/3050804. JSTOR 3050804. Retrieved 2012-05-17. 
  5. ↑ Steinhoff-Morrison, Judith “Bartolomeo Bulgarini and Sienese Painting of the Mid-Fourteenth century” PhD diss., Princeton University, 1990.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Beatson, Elizabeth H.; Norman E. Muller, Judith B. Steinhoff (1986). "The St. Victor Altarpiece in Siena Cathedral: A Reconstruction". The Art Bulletin 68 (4): 610–631. doi:10.2307/3051044. JSTOR 3051044. Retrieved 2012-05-17. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 McClannan, Anne (2007). Fleming, K.E., Adnan A. Husain, ed. A Faithful Sea: The ReligiSous Cultures of The Mediterranean, 1200-1700. Oxford: Oneworld. ISBN 978-1851684960. 

Further reading

  • Boskovitz, Miklos, ed. The Alana Collection: Italian Paintings from the 13th to 15th century. Firenze: Edizioni Polistampa, 2009.
  • Meiss, Millard. "Ugolino Lorenzetti". The Art Bulletin, Vol. 13, No. 3 (1931), pp. 376–397. Accessed: 06/04/2012 18:05. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3050804
  • McClannan, Anne. “Bulgarini’s Assumption with Doubting Thomas: Art, Trade, and Faith in Post-Plague Siena”. Fleming, K.E., Adnan A. Husain ed. A Faithful Sea: The Religious Cultures of The Mediterranean, 1200-1700. Oxford: Oneworld, 2007. ISBN 978-1851684960
  • Steinhoff, Judith B. 2007. Sienese painting after the Black Death: artistic pluralism, politics, and the new art market. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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