BENVENUTO di GIOVANNI. – Son of Meo del Guasta. Sienese painter. Born 13 September 1436, died c. 1518; his activity is extensively documented by numerous archival records and by a substantial group of signed and dated works.
At the age of 17 he collaborated with the Vecchietta, his teacher, on the frescoes of S. Giovanni in Siena (Two Miracles of s. Antonio); but his first entirely autograph and dated works are two panels in the gallery of Volterra, from 1466.
From 1475 dates the dazzling triptych in the church of S. Michele Arcangelo at Montepertuso (Murlo), while the altarpiece with lunette that the friars of S. Domenico in Siena paid him for in 1483 is among the most significant compositions concluding his first period, characterized by exquisite freshness of color and extremely precise modeling, in which echoes of Sassetta and subtle elegances approaching Neroccio may also be discerned.
In the very large Ascension, signed and dated 1491, in the Siena picture gallery, his style already appears changed: the forms become broader and heavier, the modeling takes on a geometric dryness, and the color grows murky; Umbrian influences can be noted in the landscape and in the figures’ pathetic expression. Among the dated works of the final period, mention should be made of the Assumption in the Metropolitan Museum of Nuova York (1498), the large altarpiece in S. Lucia at Sinalunga (1509), and a lunette with the Return of Gregory XI from Avignon in the museum of Pie Disposizioni in Siena (1501), particularly interesting because of the rarity of its subject. Other small, graceful Madonnas are found in museums in Europe and America. B. also executed the cartoons for various scenes and figures on the inlaid pavement of Siena Cathedral, where he painted the large monochrome saints in the drum of the dome. The antiphonaries that he illuminated in 1482 for the Opera del duomo di Siena, on the other hand, are lost. His son Girolamo (born in 1470) continued his style with less vigor.