Domenico di Bartolo

Domenico di Bartolo (birth name Domenico Ghezzi), born in Asciano, Siena, was a Sienese painter of the early Renaissance period. In the Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, Giorgio Vasari says that Domenico was the nephew of Taddeo di Bartolo.^[1] Influenced by the new Florentine style of painting, Domenico di Bartolo was the only Sienese painter of his time to receive commissions from clients in Florence. In Siena, he was employed by Lorenzo di Pietro (known as Vecchietta), to help execute the fresco The Care of the Sick, in the Pilgrim's Hall of the Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala.

Domenico is first recorded in 1420 when he and several other Sienese artists, is documented as part of a project to paint in Siena Cathedral.^[2] He is first recorded as a master in 1428, in a list of the painters' guild (ruolo dei pittori).^[2] His first surviving signed and dated work comes from 1433: The Madonna of Humility and Four Music-Making Angels.^[3] In 1433 he also painted the Virgin and Child Surrounded by Saints.^[3] A year later, in 1434, Domenico provided a design for a pavement plaque in Siena Cathedral, based on a drawing of the Emperor Sigismund, who stayed in Siena from 1432 to 1433. From 1435 to 1440 Domenico was engaged in a fresco commission for the cathedral's sacristy. This work, however, was interrupted in 1438 which gave Domenico time to go to Perugia to paint an altarpiece for the monastery church of Santa Giuliana, which is now displayed in the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria. In 1437 he also took on a contract to execute an altarpiece for the monks of Saint'Agostino at Asciano. By 1439, Domenico had been paid to work in the hospital of Santa Maria della Scala (Siena).

The frescoes executed in the Pellegrinaio of the hospital between 1439 and 1440 represent scenes of the institution's history and good works; they are the artist's last finished works and are considered to be his masterpieces. For the most part, Domenico's works were based in Perugia, and his only known activity outside of Siena may have been at Florence as his first biographer, Giorgio Vasari, records works carried out by him in the Carmine and Santa Trinita. In January 1440 Domenico di Bartolo was married to Antonia Pannilini, and on 18 February 1446, Antonia Pannilini was officially mentioned as a widow.