Francesco di Giorgio - paintings, biography

Francesco Di Giorgio Biography
(b. 1439, Siena, d. 1502, Siena)

Francesco di Giorgio Martini, Sienese painter, sculptor, architect and engineer, belongs to a select group of Renaissance practitioners, including Brunelleschi, Alberti, Michelangelo, Peruzzi, and, of course, Leonardo da Vinci, who excelled in several of the art at the same time. A native of Siena, Francesco Di Giorgio Martini may have been trained by Vecchietta (1410-1480), both a successful painter and sculptor. his early career, however, is too poorly documented to make any definitive judgments.

dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena). In 1464 Francesco di Giorgio Martini was charged with overseeing the intricate aqueduct system of Siena for a three-year period, and similar assignments as an engineer and architect continued to come for the remainder of his life, both in Siena and in other centres. His fellow Sienese painter Neroccio de' Landi (1447-1500) became his partner, perhaps as early as 1469, until litigation abruptly dissolved the relationship in 1475. In the 1470s Francesco di Giorgio Martini painted two different versions of the Coronation of the Virgin, one in fresco for the ancient Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala, done in 1471 (destroyed), and another, originally for the Benedictine abbey church outside Siena at Monte Oliveto, which appears to have been painted c. 1472. He signed a Nativity that was commissioned in 1475. Another Nativity from the 1490s is also attributed to the artist.
By the mid-1470s, his other skills were in strong demand, and in 1477 Francesco Di Giorgio was already in the service of the famed Federigo da Montefeltro of Urbino, primarily as a military engineer and architect. He built a great chain of fortifications for the Duke of Urbino, and he is credited with inventing the landmine. Francesco Di Giorgio Martini also designed relief sculpture, intarsia decorations, medals, and war machines for his patron.

List of Francesco Di Giorgio Martini Paintings