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 attributed to him the large panel with the Triumph of s. Thomas Aquinas (v.) in the church of S. Caterina in Pisa, and the triptych with S. Domenico and eight scenes from his life, formerly in S. Caterina and now in the Museum of Pisa.
These two attributions to the same author constitute a debated question; in any case, according to the most widespread and accepted view, while the large panel with the Triumph of s. Thomas would be earlier than the triptych of S. Domenico, and the work of an unknown master under the influence of the Sienese school, the Dominican triptych and a considerable part of the cycle of frescoes with the Triumph of Death and Stories of the Passion in the Camposanto of Pisa would belong to T. Indeed, as R. Longhi and E. Lavagnino observed, elements of Emilian culture are by no means absent either from the little scenes of s. Domenico or from the frescoes of the Camposanto, especially as regards the vivid concreteness of the narrative manner, with strongly dramatic and almost expressionistic accents, and a brilliant, full-bodied colouring: but these elements appear to have been felicitously grafted onto a formal experience of distinctly Tuscan descent, in which both the Sienese and the Florentine traditions can be seen to contribute in almost equal measure. The Pisan T. could therefore have shaped his stylistic development according to the modes of Bolognese painting, either through miniatures, which must have been familiar to the learned circle of the Dominican Order, for which he worked, or by travelling to Emilia himself, as would be suggested by two frescoes (S. Caterina and S. Giorgio) in the baptistery of Parma, plausibly recognized as being by his hand.
(fot. Gab. Fot. Naz.)
TRAINI, FRANCESCO — St. Dominic and scenes from his life (1345). Polyptych, formerly in the Church of S. Caterina — 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