New Evidence on Simone Martini at Avignon: Work, Network, and Reception

• In Event: Trecento Art Beyond Italy I

Abstract

This paper elaborates on the recent discovery of a document that records a hitherto unknown work painted by Simone Martini during his final years in Avignon — effectively his last documented work: an altarpiece dated 1343 commissioned by a lay Florentine patron for the high altar of the Franciscan Church at Avignon. Unpublished evidence from the convent’s archives reveals that Simone’s employment by the Avignon Franciscans was hardly a coincidence, as the as their church was the beating heart of the Italian community in the papal city and counted among its benefactors a number of Simone’s most prestigious former patrons (for instance: Robert of Anjou, Sancia of Mallorca, Jacopo Stefaneshi and Napoleone Orsini). These new insights on Simone’s work and network at Avignon offer the opportunity to reconsider more broadly the impact of Sienese art on late medieval painting at Avignon and the city’s visual identity.

Author

• Emma Capron, The Frick Collection