An Introduction To Sassetta

Sassetta was born Stefano di Giovanni around 1392 and lived until 1450 when he died of pneumonia.  He is believed to be from neighboring Cortona.  It is widely agreed that he studied in Siena as an adolescent.  He is thought to have apprenticed with Benedetto di Bindo.  When he arrived in Siena the city was in a period of restoration after the Black Death.  This theme would be echoed in his paintings.

After his death, Sassetta's art went virtually unnoticed until being rediscovered by Bernard Berenson and his wife, Mary, in the early twentieth century.  Stefano di Giovanni's nickname is somewhat of a curiosity and began to be recorded in the eighteenth century but the origin remains obscure.

Sassetta, Detail from St. Francis Marries Poverty from the Altar of St. Francis

Sassetta created a style that fused the natural world with the abstract, the symbolic with narrative.  In doing this he created a new language for painting that both hearkens back to the flourishing Siena of early trecento while incorporating contemporary elements of style.  Within his work are clear roots in Gothic traditions but his use of the natural world denotes an interest in the realism of the Florentine Renaissance.

Sassetta, The Stigmatization of St. Francis

His work carries on a Sienese devotion to the sensuous, gentle and feminine.  These depictions defy many of the heroic images favored by the Florentines and maintain a dedication to the Sienese traditions but he finds a way to mold them into a vision independent in many ways from his predecesors.  By using the natural world in contrast and concordance with images of the divine, Sassetta creates a religious art that is more accessible to the lay person.  This becomes particularly pronounced when we look at Sassetta's depictions of St. Francis of Assisi.  In his altarpiece of St. Francis we see a Saint who rises to transcendence through the natural world.  His bare feet remain connected to the figure below him while his body rises into the heights of the divine.  He is rooted in the mortal world but hardly confined to it.

Painted between 1439 and 1444 Sassetta, St. Francis in Ecstasy for the church of San Francesco in Borgo San Sepolcro. 


I find Sassetta's depictions of St. Francis to be particularly interesting and compelling.  St.Francis takes on a unique incarnation in each of his works.

Sassetta, St. Francis Renounces His Father's Earthly Goods




Sassetta delivers to us a highly feminized version of St. Francis in the panel above.  His use of space and liberties with architecture are striking.  Within this piece line and perspective are used to give us a sense of depth and expanse of sky but without a straightforward presentation of either elements.  Sassetta leans more toward the imaginative surrealism we would expect from artists in our modern era.





Bibliography

Hyman, Timothy.  Sienese Painting.  New York: Thames & Hudson, 2003.  Print 

Machtelt Israels.  Sassetta: The Borgo San Sepolcro Altartpiece, Volume 1.  Leiden:  Primavera Press, 2009.  Print


Pope-Hennessy, John.  Sassetta.  London: Chatto & Windus, 1939.  Print


Gore, St. John.  Sassetta (The Masters, Number 44).  Paulton: Knowledge Publications, 1966. Print