Giovanni di Paolo

del Poggio, Giovanni
di Paolo di Grazia, Giovanni

Sienese, c. 1403 - 1482

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Italian painter and illustrator of manuscripts (c. 1403-1482)

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Three men with crowns and wearing gold-trimmed robes stand and kneel before a woman sitting on a wooden, box-like seat holding a baby to our right, in front of a rocky cave and landscape, in this horizontal painting. A balding man with a gray beard and hair, Joseph, and two younger people with blond hair stand around the woman, Mary, to our right, while a group of five young men or boys and three horses gather near the left edge. All the people have pale skin. Mary, the baby Jesus, Joseph, and the three men closest to them all have shimmering gold halos. One balding man with a long white beard kneels and kisses the baby’s feet. He wears a gold and crimson-red brocade-like robe over a burgundy-red garment, and he holds a pointed gold crown in his right hand, which rests on the ground. Behind him and to our left, a younger man with curly blond hair and goatee, wearing a wine-red tunic belted with gold and a gold crown on his head, holds his hands in prayer as he kneels down on one knee. The third stands to our left, cleanshaven with long blond hair. He wears a fur-lined, thigh-length scarlet-red robe and a gold crown, and he holds up a gold vessel in one hand. To our right, Mary wears a lapis-blue robe that covers her head and falls to her feet. The baby is covered only by a white cloth across his hips, and he has short blond hair. He touches the kneeling man’s head with one hand. His body is pudgy but his face has more adult-like, delicate features. Joseph stands at the woman’s far shoulder, wearing a butter-yellow robe over a rose-pink garment. His hands are gathered on a walking stick in front of his chest and his brows are furrowed with deep lines. One of the two younger people behind Mary, to our right, holds a lidded gold vessel. The group of five attendants to our left gather around cream-white, gray, or chestnut-brown horses. These blond people wear garments of dark olive-green, coral-red, royal-blue, or rose-pink tunics over black stockings. The rocky, brown cave behind Mary and Jesus, to our right of center, is occupied by a donkey and an ox behind a wooden trough. The landscape beyond is segmented into quilt-like squares of stylized crops. The horizon line comes almost to the top edge of the panel beneath a narrow strip of vivid, cobalt-blue sky. A gold star like a sunburst with rays of light hovers over the woman and child.
Giovanni di Paolo, The Adoration of the Magi, c. 1450, tempera on panel, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.13

The Adoration of the Magi

Giovanni di Paolo · c. 1450 · tempera on panel ·  Accession ID  1937.1.13

This nearly square painting is visually divided into three vertical zones, with a pergola-like structure occupied by two people at the center taking up the most space, and narrower scenes with more people to either side. All the people have light, peachy skin tinged in some areas with pale green. The central structure has a shallow roof and several types of arched openings—some rounded and some pointed, all of different sizes. A winged angel to the left under the structure has curly blond hair and wears a shell-pink, floor-length robe. A seated woman to our right wears a lapis-blue dress and a white head covering. She sits with her forearms crossed over her chest, her hands in front of her shoulders. Both have plate-like, gold halos. Two arched openings at the back of the structure lead into rooms beyond. In the left quarter of the painting, a nude man and woman are pushed through an arched gateway by a winged angel with a gold halo. A bearded, haloed man looks down from a gold cloud above. Forest-green trees line the garden at the back and flowers and rabbits fill the space around the people’s feet. To our right, a balding, bearded man warms his hands at a fire in a room beyond the central structure. He wears rose pink and has a gold halo.
Giovanni di Paolo, The Annunciation and Expulsion from Paradise, c. 1435, tempera on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.223

The Annunciation and Expulsion from Paradise

Giovanni di Paolo · c. 1435 · tempera on panel ·  Accession ID  1939.1.223

Bibliography

1907

  • Weigelt, Curt H. "Giovanni di Paolo." In Thieme-Becker 1907-1-50, 14(1921):133-137.

1937

  • Pope-Hennessy, John. Giovanni di Paolo. London, 1937.

1941

  • Bacci, Peleo. "Documenti e commenti per la storia dell'arte. Ricordi della vita e dell'attività artistica del pittore senese Giovanni di Paolo di Grazia detto Boccanera (1939 circa - 1482)." Le Arti 4 (1941): 11-39.

1947

  • Brandi, Cesare. Giovanni di Paolo. Florence, 1947.

1961

  • Carli, Enzo. "Problemi e restauri di Giovanni di Paolo." Pantheon 19 (1961): 163-177.

1982

  • Chelazzi Dini, Giulietta. "Giovanni di Paolo." In Il gotico a Siena: miniature, pitture, oreficerie, oggetti d’arte. Exh. cat. Palazzo Pubblico, Siena. Florence, 1982: 358-359.

1987

  • Alessi, Cecilia. "Giovanni di Paolo." In Il Quattrocento, 1987: 2:543.

1988

  • Pope-Hennessy, John. "Giovanni di Paolo." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 46, no. 2 (1988).

  • Strehlke, Carl B. In Painting in Renaissance Siena. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988: 168-242.

1997

  • Panders, Janneke. The Underdrawing of Giovanni Paolo. Berlin, 1997.

2001

  • Wilson, Carolyn C. "Giovanni di Paolo." In Dictionario biografico degli italiani 56 (2001): 138-146.

2003

  • Boskovits, Miklós, and David Alan Brown, et al. Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 2003: 324.