Pietro Lorenzetti

Pietro Lorenzetti (or Pietro Laurati; c. 1280 – 1348) was an Italian painter, active between c.1306 and 1345. Together with his younger brother Ambrogio, he introduced naturalism into Sienese art. In their artistry and experiments with three-dimensional and spatial arrangements, the brothers foreshadowed the art of the Renaissance.

Little is known of Lorenzetti's life other than he was (putatively) born in Siena in the late 13th century (c.1280/90), died there (possibly) in 1348 a victim of the first Black Death pandemic then devastating Europe, and had a older brother, Ambrogio, also an artist. That the men were brothers was unknown to Vasari because he misread Pietro's surname on a painting in Pistoia's church of San Francesco as "Laurati". Thus, the propinquitous relationship between the artists was missed.

Pietro worked in Assisi, Florence, Pistoia, Cortona, and Siena, although the precise chronology is unknown. His work suggests the influence of Duccio (in whose studio he may have worked, possibly alongside Simone Martini), Giotto, and Giovanni Pisano.

According to Vasari, it was Pietro's frescoes that adorned the facade of Siena's Ospedale della Scala that first bought him to the attention of his contemporaries. Unfortunately, the frescoes – now believed to be the work of both Lorenzetti brothers – were destroyed in 1720 and subsequently whitewashed over.

Many of his religious works may still be seen in churches and museums in the Tuscan towns of Arezzo, Assisi, and Siena (e.g., his last documented work – the Nativity of the Virgin (c. 1335–1342) – is displayed in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo).

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