SIMONE CAMALDOLESE, Don
(active 1378-1405 in Florence)

Biography

Italian illuminator. He was a Camaldolese monk of Santa Maria degli Angeli, Florence, the scriptorium of which was an important centre of manuscript production. Documented there between 1378 and 1389, he was a slightly younger contemporary of Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci, and he was probably the teacher of Lorenzo Monaco. His signature Simon de Senis in an Antiphonary completed in 1381 (Florence, Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana) indicates that he was from Siena, although his work shows both Florentine and Sienese stylistic traits. His sweet, lyrical colour range of pale straw-yellows and lively turquoise shades shows knowledge of such Sienese artists as Lippo Vanni, while the ponderous forms are typical of the prevalent style practiced by such artists as Andrea and Jacopo di Cione Orcagna and Giovanni del Biondo in mid-14th-century Florence.



© Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Krén and Daniel Marx.