ANDREA di BARTOLO. — Sienese painter, son Bartolo di Fredi (v.), he was recorded as enrolled in the roll of the Painters’ Guild in 1389. Many documentary records of his activity have survived; he held various public offices and died on 3 June 1428. Three signed works by him are known: a panel in the Wildestein Collection in Nuova York, an Assumption in the Whitney Collection in Nuova York, and a polyptych with the Annunciation and two saints in the Parish Museum of Buonconvento. Numerous paintings have been attributed to him. He was his father’s assistant and pupil, but later came under the influence of Taddeo di Bartolo, who helped give greater solidity to his drawing. He is a sound epigone of the great Lorenzetti tradition.
in rebuilding churches and monasteries (he kept a record of all these expenses, in his own hand, in a memorandum that has been preserved), while living independently in great austerity. With all his strength he sought to settle the civil and domestic disputes and dissensions that raged in that age, and various places—Firenze, Prato, and Pistoia—had recourse to him as a peacemaker. Around 1368 he was sent by Urbano V to Bologna to bring the city, which the political machinations of the Visconti had induced to rebel against the Pontiff, back to obedience; he succeeded happily, although at first he was despised and even imprisoned. Various miracles were attributed to him during his lifetime and after his death. A few weeks after his passing, his body was secretly taken to Firenze and buried in the church of the Carmine; the artistic tomb, adorned with an inscription by Coluccio Salutati, was destroyed by a fire in 1771. Considered the protector of the Commune, which credited his intercession with the victory of Anghiari (1440), he was then honored, by concession of Eugenio IV, with the title of blessed. A regular process, begun in 1602, led to his solemn canonization on 22 Apr. 1629. His feast is celebrated on 4 February.