TOMMASO da MODENA. – Painter and illuminator, born in Modena around 1325 to Barisino dei Barisini, died there before 1379.
He worked predominantly, and on several occasions, in Treviso, where in 1352 he signed the extensive decoration of the Dominican Chapter House at S. Niccolò; then in Mantua and, in all probability, in Trent, and thereafter in Modena. His training was completed in the Bolognese milieu, hence a certain Vitale-like accent in his youthful works alongside Sienese motifs; but above all he was profoundly and enduringly influenced by the manner of manuscript illumination.
The taste for the vivid, incisive quality of representation, drawn from the immediate freshness of realistic motifs—so characteristic of Bolognese illumination devoted to the illustration of juridical texts—T. transferred on a much broader scale to the great sacred narrative. He thus enriched the composition with a multitude of pleasing episodes, and above all deepened his psychological understanding of his figures through an exceptionally penetrating study of the mimetic values of gesture and the muscular contraction of faces, with results that may be defined as a true «mimetic impressionism». Its finest example is the cycle with the Stories of s. Orsola (Museo di Treviso), rich in dramatic interweavings; while the aforementioned decoration of the Chapter House, with figures from the Dominican Order, may be regarded as an extremely interesting «anthology of characters». To achieve this eloquent vividness in his figurative discourse, T. employed an exceedingly delicate modeling in colored chiaroscuro which, although confined within the limited sphere of «local color», represents a certain anticipation of tonal effects. T.’s importance for the subsequent development of Venetian painting and for the formation of Avanzo and Altichiero is considerable; they operated on a higher and broader plane.