Andrew of Niccolò di Jacopo

ANDREW OF NICCOLÒ DI JACOPO. - Sienese painter, b. around 1440 and recorded until 1514. Of various works executed by him in Siena and Massa Marittima and cited in documents of 1470, 1477, 1490, 1499, 1500 no trace remains; however, in the Pinacoteca of Siena there is a large altarpiece (no. 298) with the Madonna and Four Saints, signed and dated 1500, and in the same Gallery a Crucifixion (no. 368) with the date 1502 is confidently attributed to him. Another work certainly his, dated 1510, is a tempera altarpiece on canvas with the Madonna between Sts. Crispin and Crispinian, executed for the shoemakers' guild of Siena, which is preserved in the church of S. Mustiola.

Numerous other paintings have been rightly assigned to him, also because, although he was of modest stature, his style is very personal and most recognizable. It derives from that of Vecchietta (v.), of whom A. was perhaps a pupil, with ever more pronounced influences of Neroccio di Bartolomeo (v.) and Benvenuto di Giovanni (v.). His works, very careful in execution, reveal a gentle and sincere religiosity full of plebeian graciousness, and a sweetly fanciful and contemplative temperament in the landscape backgrounds inspired, like those of the Sienese of that time, by Umbrian painting. To A. di N. there also belong some of the extremely rare temperas on canvas of the Sienese School.