PAOLO DI GIOVANNI FEI

Italian painter. He is often confused with Francesco di Vannuccio and at one time was thought to have been a pupil of Vannuccio's partner, Andrea Vanni. He held public positions in Siena from 1369 and was first mentioned in the register of painters enrolled in the Breve dall'Arte in 1389. There are a number of signed and dated works from 1381 onwards. Between 1395 and 1410 he is documented as working at Siena CathedralGLOSSARYThe principal church of a province or diocese, where the throne of the bishop is placed. For reasons lost to time and tradition, a cathedral always faces west - toward the setting sun. The altar is placed at the east end. The main body, or nave, of the cathedral is usually divided into one main and two side aisles. These lead up to the north and south transepts, or arms of the cross, the shape in which a cathedral is usually formed.. Works such as the Birth of the Virgin (Siena, Pinacoteca Nazionale) and the Assumption of the Virgin (Washington, National GalleryGLOSSARYan upper story, similar to a tribune, running along the side of a building and open on one side to the interior; in a church (basilica) above the side aisles, over the ambulatory (central-plan building) and also over the west end. The gallery was used to keep certain groups of worshippers apart (women, noblemen). of Art) show the influence of the Lorenzetti brothers, Pietro and Ambrogio, Bartolo di Fredi and Simone Martini. Paolo di Giovanni Fei's figures have a slightly jowly, long-cheeked and long-nosed facial type and hands with characteristically bulbous ended fingers.

His style is marked by an overpowering delight in colour and incidental detail rather than rational spatial illusionismGLOSSARYThe painting techniques that create the realistic impression of solid, three-dimensional objects (such as picture frames, architectural features, plasterwork etc.). He often adopts motifs of earlier Tuscan artists, such as the Christ Child holding his own foot. The figure truncated by architecture also occurs frequently. Although such devices were used to good effect in the works of the Lorenzetti and earlier painters, such as Jacopo del Casentino and Duccio, the same elements can confuse and work against spatial illusionism in Paolo di Giovanni Fei's work. He influenced Sassetta with such works as the Virgin and Child Enthroned with SS John the Baptist, Andrew, Francis and the Prophet Daniel (Siena, Pinacoteca Nazionale) and Giovanni di Paolo.