An anonymous painter whose formal name has been taken from the most
significant work to have been recognised as by his hand. This is the
fresco illustrating the Stories of the Blessed Joan in the Parish
Church of San Giovanni Battista at Signa, dated 1462. After training in
the workshop of Bicci di Lorenzo, with whom he collaborated in the
1450's, the artist's earliest known works are the lateral panels of two
polyptyches, now divided up and conserved in the Museum of the
Collegiate of Empoli: a Sts. Lawrence, Domninus, Peter and Paul and a
Sts. Ansano and Apollonia with the Archangel Raphael.
During his career the Master of Signa showed interests similar to those
of his contemporary, Neri di Bicci, who came from the same school, and
therefore made attempts to update his decorative elements to match the
new trends in Renaissance architecture. This is noticeable in his
elaboration of thrones (the Altarpiece of San Miniato at Quintole),
porticoes (the Annunciation in the Berenson collection), and niches
(the frescoed Saints in the Church of San NiccolÚ Oltrarno in
Florence), and in his frequent use of spiral motifs in perspective to
decorate marble cornices. He was however a traditional craftsman-like
painter, rather behind the times, who best expressed his down-to-earth
liveliness in narrative scenes, as in his Stories of the Blessed Joan
at Signa, or in the eulogistic paintings below the Saints in San
NiccolÚ Oltrarno. He carried out a wide variety of commissions, in
particular for the country churches around Florence; traces of his work
can be found at Lastra a Signa, Empoli, Ponte a Greve, Quintole,
Rupecanina, Villamagna, Castelbonsi, Vicchio, Palazzuolo sul Senio and
Badia a Settimo.
The Master of Signa, like all the artists who suited the tastes and
commissions of the country parishes, was important because he
contributed towards the spread of Florentine artistic culture to the
towns outside the city, while also helping late Gothic elements to
survive until the end of the century.
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