Francesco Traini
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Francesco Traini was an Italian painter who was demonstrably active from 1321 to approx. 1365 in Pisa and Bologna. There is only one work which is known to be by Traini without doubt: in 1345 he signed and dated a polyptych of the Pisan church S. Caterina, showing Saint Dominic and eight hagiographic scenes (now in the Museo Nazionale, Pisa). By comparison of style it seems to be the prevailing opinion among contemporary scholars to attribute many of the huge frescoes of the Camposanto Monumentale in Pisa to him, including the Last Judgement, Inferno, Legends of the Hermits and, finally, the famous Il Trionfo della Morte (the Triumph of Death) - which is thought by some scholars to be by Buonamico Buffalmacco, though.
Especially the Trionfo della Morte (after 1350) is considered one of the finest and most powerful artworks of the Trecento as it displays the merciless omnipresence of death very drastically. It can be seen - just like the earliest examples of Totentanz paintings at the same time in Germany - as a reaction to the horrors of the black death in the late 1340s.
It is most unfortunate that the frescoes of the Camposanto were severely damaged or even destroyed by Allied air raids in World War II.
[edit] Sources
- John White: Art and Architecture in Italy 1250-1400. Pelican History of Art 1993
