Lippo Memmi

Lippo Memmi (c. 1291 – 1356) was an Italian painter from Siena. He was the foremost follower of Simone Martini, who was his brother-in-law.

Together with Martini, in 1333 he painted one of the masterworks of the International Gothic, the Annunciation with St. Margaret and St. Ansanus (now in the Uffizi), probably mainly working on the two saints. He was one of the artists who worked at Orvieto Cathedral, for which he finished the Virgin of Mercy ("Madonna dei Raccomandati"). Later he followed Martini to the Papal court in Avignon, where he worked until the mid-14th century. After his return to Siena, Memmi continued to work until his death in 1356.

Style

Memmi's figures retain the static and generally frontal view found in the earlier generation of late Duecento masters such as Guido da Siena. Common features of his documented and attributed work are the sophisticated compositional arrangements, figures rendered with a striking facial roundness, narrow eyes, graceful brow lines, and elongated noses.