Description
In this panel, Simone Martini depicts Saint Ansanus, one of Siena’s patron saints, as a youthful martyr of calm bearing. He holds the city’s black-and-white banner in one hand and the palm of martyrdom in the other. The delicacy of the face, the careful drawing of the fingers and the folds of the cloak reveal the exceptional refinement of Sienese painting. The gold background, altered over the centuries, still contributes to the solemnity of this devotional image.
Painted around 1326, the work was one of five panels in a polyptych commissioned by the government of Siena for its civic governor. Its unusual construction made it possible to move the altarpiece between official residences. The painting is now preserved at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, in the Robert Lehman Collection. Its rectangular frame is original, an uncommon survival of particular value for understanding the ensemble’s design and use.
