TRAINI, FRANCESCO. - Pisan painter of the 14th century. Vasari, who was the first to write about him, defined him as the best disciple of Oreagna and assigned to him the large panel with the Triumph of St. Thomas Aquinas (v.) in the church of S. Caterina in Pisa and the triptych with St. Dominic and eight scenes from his life, formerly in S. Caterina, now in the Museum of Pisa.
These two attributions to the same author form a disputed question; in any case, according to the most widespread and accepted opinion, while the large panel with the Triumph of St. Thomas would be earlier than the St. Dominic triptych, and the work of an unknown master under the influence of the Sienese school, to T. would belong the Dominican triptych and a good part of the cycle of frescoes with the Triumph of Death and Scenes of the Passion in the Camposanto of Pisa. In fact, as R. Longhi and E. Lavagnino noted, elements of Emilian culture are not lacking both in the little scenes of St. Dominic and in the frescoes of the Camposanto, especially as regards the vivid concreteness of the manner of narration, with strongly dramatic and almost expressionistic accents, and a bright and full-bodied colouring: but such elements appear happily grafted onto a formal experience of frankly Tuscan descent, in which both the Sienese and the Florentine tradition are seen to concur in nearly equal measure. The Pisan T. was therefore able to inform his stylistic development from the manners of Bolognese painting both through the medium of miniatures, such as must have been familiar to the learned circle of the Dominican Order, for which he worked, and by going himself to Emilia, as two frescoes (St. Catherine and St. George) in the baptistery of Parma would suggest, plausibly recognized as from his hand.
Bibliography5 works
(phot. Gab. fot. naz.)
TRAINI, FRANCESCO - St. Dominic and scenes from his life (1345). Polyptych, formerly in the Church of St. Catherine - Pisa, Museo Civico.
maro", in Boll. d'arte del Min. della P. I., 1949, p. 311; G. Paccagnini, Il probl. documentario di F. T., in La Critica d'arte, 8 (1949), pp. 191-201; G. Vigni, Pittura pisana del Due e Trecento, Palermo 1950, pp. 25-29 and 77-79. Enzo Carli