Simone Martini (c. 1284 – 1344) was an Italian painter born in Siena. He was a major figure in the progress of ahead of time Italian painting and greatly influenced the spread of the International Gothic style.
It is thought that Martini was a pupil of Duccio di Buoninsegna, the leading Sienese painter of his time. According to late Renaissance art biographer Giorgio Vasari, Simone was otherwise a pupil of Giotto di Bondone, with whom he went to Rome to paint at the Old St. Peter’s Basilica, Giotto furthermore executing a mosaic there. Martini’s brother-in-law was the artist Lippo Memmi. Very little documentation of Simone’s spirit survives, and many attributions are debated by art historians. According to E. H. Gombrich, he was a friend of Petrarch and had painted a portrait of Laura.
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