LORENZO, or LORENZETTO, AMBROGIO AND PIETRO DI, two celebrated Italian painters of the 14th century, were born at Siena about 1300. They were brothers, as we learn from the following inscription, formerly in the Hospital of Siena :—" Hoc opus fecit Petrua Lanrentii et Ambrosius ejus frater, 1330." It was attached to pictures of the 'Presentation' and of the ' Marriage of the Virgin,' which were destroyed in 1720, and was preserved by the Cay. Pecci. This inscription explains the name given by Vasari to Pietro, whom he calls Petrus Laurati or Laurcati, which is evidently an erroneous reading of Petrus Laurentii—Pietro di Lorenzo.
Some of the works of these painters still remain, though the prin cipal of their works, by Ambrogio, which is described by Ghiberti (ln ' Cod. Magliabecchiana; f. 8 & 9), is destroyed. It was painted iu the Minorite convent at Siena, and represented the fatal adventures of some missionary monks. In the first compartment a youth was represented putting on the monastic costume ; in another, the same youth was represented with several of his brother monks about to set out for Asia, to convert the Mohammedans ; in a third, these missionaries are already at their place of destination, and are being chastised in the sultan's presence, and arc surrounded and mocked by a crowd of scoffing infidels; the sultan judges them to be hanged ; in a fourth the young monk is already hanged to a tree, yet notwith standing he continues to preach the gospel to the astonished multitude, upon which the sultan orders their heads to be cut off; the next compartment is their ceremonious execution by the sword, and the scaffold is surrounded by a great crowd on foot and on horseback ; after the execution follows a great storm, which is represented in all the detail of wind, hail, lightning, and earthquake, from all of which the crowd ara protecting themselves as they best can, and this miracle, - — as it was considered, is the cause of many conversiona to Christianity. Such is the description of this picture by Lorenzo Ghiberti, the first sculptor of his time, and he finishes by declaring it to be, as a painted story, a wonderful thing—" per una storia pieta mi pare una mara vigliosa cosa ; " many of the actors, ho says also, appeared to be living beings. There is still in the Sala dells Balestre, in the public palace of Siena, a tempera painting of 'Peace,' represented by a view within and without the city of Siena, with numerous inhabitants variously occu pied in business and in pleasure. War was likewise represented iu
this hall, but is now defaced ; there are however other allegorical works still remaining, and Rumohr observes that what remain justify Ghiberti's praises of what have disappeared, speaking with relation to the time of their production-1337, 1338.
Of the several pictures by Ambrogio Lorenzetti mentioned by Ohl berg, only one remains—the 'Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple,' iu the Scuole Regie, and in this some of the women are excellent.
Ghiberti does not mention any works by Pietro Lorenzetti, and there is only one authenticated work by him ; it is in the Stanza del Pilone, a room against the sacristy of the cathedral of Siena, and is marked "Petrua Laurentii de Seals me pinxit, a. srece.xm." It represents, according to Rumohr, some passages from the life of John the Baptist, his birth, &c.
Vasari mentions many works by Pietro in various cities of Tuscany, where he says his reputation was greater than either Citnabue's or Giotto's. He attributes to him a picture of the early fathers and hermits in the Campo Santo at Pisa ; it is engraved in Lasiuio's 'Pitture del Campo Santo di Piaa.' In 1355 Pietro was invited to Arezzo to paint the cathedral, iu which he painted in fresco twelve stories from the life of the Virgin, with figures as large as life and larger, but they have long since perished ; they were however in good preservation in the time of Vasari, who completely restored them. He speaks of parts of them as superior in style and vigour to anything that had been done up to that time.
The works of these painters, though relatively good, are not exempt from any of the errors or defects of the prevailing style in Italy pre. vioua to Donatello, Maaaccio, and Ghiberti ; and they display even some of the barbarities of the Byzantine school. Several pictures are attributed to them in various collections, but wholly without evidence as to their authorship.
(Vasari, Vite de' Pittori, &c. ; Della Valle, Lettere Sanesi ; Lanzi, Storia Pittorica, &c.; and especially Rumohr, Italienische Forschungcn, in which the two Lorenzetti are treated of at considerable length.)