Rediscovered Madonna

"Here is eternal fame!" exclaimed 16th century Artist and Chronicler Giorgio Vasari of Simone Martini, the Sienese painter who lived 200 years before Vasari's time. What provoked Vasari's admiration and envy in this case was not Martini's painting, which Vasari noted was "rapidly perishing," but the fact that Petrarch had mentioned Martini in two sonnets. Last week history reversed Vasari's order of precedence. Few but antiquarians care whether Martini was mentioned by Petrarch or not, but the discovery of a hitherto unknown Martini Madonna and Child (see cut] is the talk of Italian art circles, where it is being hailed as the painting discovery of the year.

The painting (24 in. by 38 in.) came to light when the priest of the Church of Lucignano d'Arbia in Monteroni, eight miles from Siena, called in restorers to repair the undistinguished painting that for centuries had hung over the main altar. Preliminary cleaning flaked away the overpainting, revealed a lovely eye, "long, sweet and melancholy." Shipped to Rome's Restoration Institute, the painting has been carefully worked over for the past seven months. The Madonna which emerged, with amaranth-red robe, gilt-edged blue veil and glittering gold medallion is judged by critics the finest Martini oil painting known. Nonagenarian Renaissance Critic Bernard Berenson, who once called Martini "the most lovable of all the Italian artists before the Renaissance," said of the discovery: "It is certainly a masterpiece. And there is not the slightest doubt that it is an authentic Simone Martini."

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