Andrea Vanni:
Italian Byzantine Style Painter , ca.1332-1414
was an Italian painter of the early Renaissance. He was born in Siena, and in conjunction with Bartolo di Maestro Fredi, began to paint in 1353. He seems to have been important in Siena, having been elected a member of the Great Council in 1370, Gonfaloniero in 1371, sent as Envoy to the Pope at Avignon in 1372, on a mission to Florence in 1373, and again as Envoy to the Pope at Naples in 1384. Many examples exist of his paintings between 1353 and 1414 in Naples and its vicinity. At the chapel of St. Catherine of Siena, in the church of San Domenico, Naples, can be found the remains of a fresco painted by him to commemorate the life of that saint, who was a correspondent and perhaps a relation of his own. A letter from St. Catherine to Vanni survives. About the year 1400, china oil painting Andrea Vanni Ascension of Christ