Simone Martini

Simone Martini (c. 1284–1344) was the Sienese painter who gave Italian art its courtly Gothic grace. Probably a pupil of Duccio di Buoninsegna, he painted in the soft, flowing line of the Sienese tradition and drew on French illuminated manuscripts. His first documented work is the Maestà of 1315 in Siena's Palazzo Pubblico.

In 1317 King Robert of Anjou called him to Naples, where he painted Saint Louis of Toulouse crowning his brother Robert. With Lippo Memmi he painted the Annunciation of 1333 now in the Uffizi, and frescoed the San Martino Chapel at Assisi.

By 1335 he was at the Avignon papal court, where he befriended Petrarch, two of whose sonnets mention a portrait of Laura he is said to have painted. He died at Avignon in July 1344.