Francesco Traini

The Triumph of Death

Francesco Traini was an Italian painter who was demonstrably active from 1321 to approx. 1365 in Pisa and Bologna.

He appears to have been a follower of Andrea Orcagna. There is only one work known to be by Traini: 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). Most scholars attribute many of the huge frescoes of the Camposanto Monumentale in Pisa to Traini, including the Last Judgement, Inferno, Legends of the Hermits and, the famous Il Trionfo della Morte (the Triumph of Death). Other scholars attribute this last work to Buonamico Buffalmacco.

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. It represents- like the earliest examples of Totentanz paintings which were contemporary in Germany - as a reaction to the horrors of the black death in the late 1340s.

The frescoes of the Camposanto were unfortunately either severely damaged or destroyed by Allied air raids in World War II.

References

• Bryan, Michael (1889). Walter Armstrong & Robert Edmund Graves (ed.). Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, Biographical and Critical (Volume II L-Z). York St. #4, Covent Garden, London; Original from Fogg Library, Digitized May 18, 2007: George Bell and Sons. pp. page 582. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)CS1 maint: location (link)
• John White: Art and Architecture in Italy 1250-1400. Pelican History of Art 1993