_Benvenuto da Siena_ (Sienese: 1436-1518).
The earliest known work by this painter is an Annunciation,
painted in 1466, in the church of S. Girolamo at Volterra. He
executed some of the illuminations of the choir-books, and
designed portions of the pavement, in the cathedral of Siena.
He was the son of a mason.
A charming combination of older and newer "motives." There is the gold
background, true to the old Sienese traditions, but there are also the
little fiddling angels, so common in Venetian and other pictures of the
time of Benvenuto's later years. In the compartments on either side are
St. Peter, and St. Nicholas of Bari (with various adornments referring
to his story: see under 1171).