_Matteo di Giovanni_ (Sienese: 1435-1495).
Matteo, the son of Giovanni di Bartolo (a mercer),--called also
Matteo di Siena--was the best Sienese painter of his time, and
in this picture, which is perhaps his masterpiece, we have an
epitome of all the most characteristic qualities of the earlier
Sienese school--"its warm, delicate, and transparent colouring,
its graceful outline, its religious sentiment, and its somewhat
miniature-like execution. Matteo was the last of the series
of painters who developed the art of Duccio, adhering to the
traditions of the school of which that great master was the
founder" (Layard). In the expression of passion and dramatic
action that school was never successful, struggling to
disguise weakness by overstraining expression. This weakness
is conspicuous in Matteo's pictures of the "Massacre of the
Innocents" (in S. Agostino and S. Maria de' Servi in Siena),
and is not absent from his "Ecce Homo" and "St. Stephen" in
this Gallery (247 and 1461). His best pictures at Siena are
the "Madonna della Neve" in the chapel of that name, and the
"Coronation of S. Barbara" in S. Domenico. He also designed one
of the Sibyls (the Samian) on the marble pavement of the Duomo.
A picture in which the artist concentrates all he could command of
gaiety and joyousness in colour, expression, action, and sentiment; and
thus typical of the personal feeling, approximating to that of a lover
to his mistress, which entered into Madonna worship. These pictures
of coronations and assumptions of the Virgin are not merely tributes
of devotion to the mother of God, but are poetic renderings of the
recognition of women's queenship, of her rule not by force of law but
by tenderness and sacrifice--
For lo! thy law is pass'd
That this my love should manifestly be
To serve and honour thee:
And so I do: and my delight is full,
Accepted for the servant of thy rule.
One may read the same spirit, perhaps, in the legend of St. Thomas
and the Madonna, introduced in this picture--of St. Thomas, who ever
doubted, but whose faith was confirmed by a woman's girdle. For the
story is that the Virgin, taking pity on his unbelief, threw down to
him her girdle, which he is here raising his hands to catch, as it
falls from her throne, in order that this tangible proof remaining with
him might remove all doubts for ever from his mind--
Lady, since I conceived
Thy pleasurable aspect in my heart,
My life has been apart
In shining brightness and the place of truth;
Which till that time, good sooth,
Groped among shadows in a darken'd place.