MARTINI, SIMONE

(ca. 1284-1344)

Italian artist, trained at Siena byDucciobut active also inNaples, Assisi, and the papal court atAvignon. Unlike his Florentine contemporaries, who were domi-nated by the influence ofGiotto, he continued to paint in the elegant courtly style known as International Gothic. His best-known works are his small panel paintingThe Road to Calvaryand his delicate and aristocratic tempera painting of the Virgin Mary,The Annunciation, a work probably done at Avignon and clearly influenced by French Gothic painting. He was aware of the new Renaissance literary cul-ture represented byPetrarch, for another of his works is the fron-tispiece done for Petrarch's own manuscript of Vergil'sAeneid, and he is mentioned in two of Petrarch's poems.