Simone Pignoni

Simone Pignoni was a Florentine painter and sculptor, born in 1611. Described as an excellent teacher and an influence for some of the most Florentine famous painters of the seventeenth century, Pignoni began his artistic education with Fabrizio Boschi and later with the famous painter Francesco Furini, who was a constant stylistic reference point throughout his career.

Pignogni's early output was characterised by naturalism and a palette reminiscent of the Venetian school, as seen in the painting Saint Thomas executed for the confraternity of Saint Sebastian in Florence. His later works exhibit a more severe and moderate expressive style. Throughout his career, he produced mainly religious works, and was also renowned for his sensual portrayals of Mary Magdalene, voluptuous female depictions in which Pignoni makes great use of colour and definite contours. Pignoni regularly received church commissions, and produced about thirty altarpieces over the course of his career.

During the later years of his career, Pignoni developed his style still further. In 1671, he produced the altarpiece for a chapel of the Santissima Annunziata in Florence, which demonstrates a new spatial articulation, with a pyramidal structure and particular attention to the emotional and gestural dimension of the figures represented, in a late Baroque style.

Pignoni's last dated work, Saint Louis of France Offering a Banquet to the Poor (1682) in the church of Santa Felicita, Florence, was commissioned by Count Luigi Guicciardini. The canvas features a complex compositional orchestration in which the imposing architectural backdrop dominates, displaying the full maturation of Pignoni's style.