Biography

Italian painter. He was one of the leading artists during the second half of the thirteenth century. He received his name after the painting of Christ and the Virgin Enthroned in the Convento delle Clarisse, Siena. He has been identified as Rinaldo da Siena, painter of a Biccherna panel, but extrapolating from a single figure on a Biccherna panel is problematic and this identification is not generally accepted. However, whether or not the name Rinaldo is applicable, a coherent body of work has been attributed to this painter, including manuscript illuminations as well as panel paintings and frescoes. He was responsible for the frescoes of the Crucifixion and Deposition in the newly discovered undercroft or 'crypt', that was originally the atrium of the eastern entrance to Siena Cathedral.