BENVENUTO di GIOVANNI. - Son of Meo del Guasta. Sienese painter. Born 13 Sept. 1436, died ca. 1518; his activity is amply documented by numerous archival records and by a substantial group of signed and dated works.
At the age of 17 he collaborated with Vecchietta, his master, on the frescoes of S. Giovanni in Siena (Two Miracles of St. Anthony): but his first fully autograph and dated works are two panels in the gallery of Volterra, from 1466.
From 1475 is the dazzling triptych of 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 that conclude his first period, characterized by an exquisite freshness of colour and an extremely crisp modelling, in which echoes of Sassetta and subtle elegances close to Neroccio are also perceptible.
In the very large Ascension, signed and dated 1491, in the pinacoteca of Siena, his style already appears changed: the forms become broader and heavier, the modelling takes on a geometric dryness, and the colour grows murky: Umbrian influences are noticeable in the landscape and in the pathetic expression of the figures. Among the dated works of the last period should be mentioned the Assumption in the Metropolitan Museum of New York (1498), the great altarpiece in S. Lucia at Sinalunga (1509), and a lunette with the Return of Gregory XI from Avignon in the museum of the Pie Disposizioni in Siena (1501), particularly interesting for the rarity of its subject. Other small, graceful Madonnas are found in museums of Europe and America. B. also executed the cartoons for various scenes and figures of the inlaid marble pavement of the cathedral of Siena, where he painted the great monochrome saints in the drum of the cupola. The antiphonaries, however, which he illuminated in 1482 for the Opera del duomo of Siena, are lost. His son Girolamo (b. 1470) continued his style with less vigour.
Bibliography4 works
Enzo Carli