Lorenzetti, Ambrogio
(b. c. 1290, Siena, Republic of Siena--d. 1348), younger brother
of Pietro Lorenzetti, who ranks in importance with the greatest
of the Italian Sienese painters, Duccio and Simone Martini. Only
six documented works of Ambrogio, apparently covering a
period of merely 13 years, have survived. They include four
scenes from the legend of St. Nicholas of Bari in the Uffizi,
Florence, which are parts of an altarpiece painted about 1332 in
Florence; the "Good and Bad Government" wall decorations of
1337-39 in the Sala della Pace in the Palazzo Pubblico, Siena,
and the signed and dated panels of the "Presentation of Christ in
the Temple" (1342) in the Uffizi and of the "Annunciation"
(1344) in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena.
It is not known who Ambrogio's teacher was, but his early works
indicate that he early received his main inspiration from the art
of Duccio, his brother Pietro, and Giotto. Already his
representations reveal a realistic individualism and an intense
preoccupation with significant composition and form. These
characteristics are most evident in the "Allegories" in the Palazzo
Pubblico, the most important Sienese fresco decoration. In it
Ambrogio is seen as an acute observer, an empirical explorer of
linear and aerial perspective, a student of classical works of art,
and a political and moral philosopher. His desire to depict spatial
depth convincingly led him to an increasingly accurate rendering
of space in his paintings and almost to one-point perspective in
his last work, the "Annunciation." With his profound interest in
perspective and in classical antiquity, Ambrogio anticipated the
Renaissance. The art of the Lorenzettis was widely imitated in
Siena during the third quarter of the 14th century, and many
works by close followers are still commonly attributed to one or
the other brother.