BARNA (BERNA) da STENA. – A painter of the Sienese school of the 14th century. Remembered by Ghiberti as “eccellentissimo, peritissimo e dottissimo,” nothing is known of his birth. Vasari recounts that he died in 1381 after falling from a scaffold while painting the Stories of the New Testament in the collegiate church of San Gimignano; the cycle was then completed by his pupil Giovanni d’Asciano. Since documentary evidence about the painter is entirely lacking, some have even doubted his historical existence; this view, however, is contested by all scholars, who agree in recognizing in the San Gimignano frescoes—despite considerable collaboration from assistants—the presence of an artistic personality with distinct and unmistakable traits. It is moreover highly probable that the B. mentioned by ancient historiographers is to be identified with a B. di Bertino, a painter of the popolo of Sant’Egidio who, according to a document discovered by Milanesi, in 1340 sat among the jurors at the tribunal of the Mercanzia in Siena.
Extremely difficult and controversial, however, is the chronology of the San Gimignano cycle: numerous arguments oppose the dating proposed by Vasari, which is nonetheless upheld and defended by some authoritative Italian scholars, while others would place the frescoes around the mid-century, i.e., before the cycle of the Old Testament painted by Bartolo di Fredi (q.v.) in the same building. The recent shift in the traditional dating of the latter from 1356 to 1367 may provide a new and important argument in favor of the priority of B.’s frescoes over those of Bartolo di Fredi.
Very few panel paintings can be attributed with any certainty to B. on the basis of stylistic affinities with the San Gimignano frescoes: among these, a fine Madonna and Child in the church of San Francesco in Asciano (Siena) and a Christ Carrying the Cross in the Frick Collection, New York. Formed under Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi, B. in the San Gimignano cycle revitalizes with new energy and independence the straightforward narrative vein that lay at the origin of Duccio’s inspiration, though imbuing it with a deeply dramatic spirit, not without a certain popular roughness at times. For the originality of his position, B. is without doubt the most vital and important figure in all of Sienese painting of the Trecento after the death of the Lorenzetti.