MARTINI, Giovanni Battista (1706-1784), the most learned musician of the 18th century, was bornât Bologna on April 25, 1706. His father, Antonio Maria Martini, a violinist, taught him very early the elements of music, and to play the violin: at a later period he learned singing and harpsichord playing from Padre Pradieri, and counterpoint from Antonio Riccieri. Having received his education in classics from the fathers of the oratory of San Filippo Neri, he afterwards entered upon a noviciate at the Franciscan monastery at Lago, at the close of which he was received into that order on September 11, 1722. Continuing his studies in the theory and practice of music with great zeal, he in 1725, though only nineteen years of age, received the appointment of chapelmaster in the Franciscan church at Bologna, where his compositions soon attracted much attention. At the invitation of amateurs and professional friends he now opened a school of musical composition at which in the course of his long life several celebrated musicians were trained, including Paolucci, Sabbatini, Ruttini, Zanotti, Sarti, Ottani, and Stanislas Mattei; as a teacher he consistently declared his preference for the traditions of the old Roman school of musical composition (see Music). Padre Martini was a zealous and indefatigable collector of musical literature, and is alleged to have been the possessor of the most extensive musical library ever formed. After a lingering illness he died at Bologna on August 4, 1784. His Elogio was published by Pietro della Valle at Bologna in the same year....
The greater number of Martini’s sacred compositions remain unprinted. The Liceo of Bologna possesses the MSS. of two oratorios; and a requiem, with some other pieces of church music, are now in Vienna. Litaniae atque antiphonae Jinales B. V. Mariae were published at Bologna in 1734, as also twelve Sonate d'intavolatura ; six Sonate per V organo cd il cembalo in 1747; and Duetti da Camera in 1763. Martini’s most important works are his Storia della Musica (Bologna, 1757-81) and his Saggio di Contrapunto (Bologna, 1774-75). The former, of which the three published volumes relate wholly to ancient music, and thus represent a mere fragment of the author’s vast plan, exhibits immense reading and industry, but it is written in a dry and unattractive style, and is overloaded with matter which cannot be regarded as historical. At the beginning and end of each chapter occur puzzle-canons, some of which are exceedingly difficult; Cherubini solved the whole of them. The Saggio is a very learned and valuable work, containing an important collection of examples from the best masters of the old Italian and Spanish schools, with excellent explanatory notes. It treats chiefly of the tonalities of the plain chant, and of counterpoints constructed upon them. Besides being the author of several controversial works, Martini drew up a Dictionary of Ancient Musical Terms, which appeared in the second volume of G. B. Doni’s Works ; he also published a treatise on The Theory of Numbers as applied to Music.
MARTINI, Simone (1283-1344), called also Simone di Martino, and more commonly, but not correctly, Simon Memmi, was born in 1283. He followed the manner of painting proper to his native Siena, as improved by Duccio, which is essentially different from the style of Giotto and his school, and the idea that Simone was himself a pupil of Giotto is therefore wide of the mark. The Sienese style is less natural, dignified, and reserved than the Florentine; it has less unity of impression, has more tendency to pietism, and is marked by exaggerations which are partly related to the obsolescent Byzantine manner, and partly seem to forebode certain peculiarities of the fully developed art which we find prevalent in Michelangelo. Simone, in especial, tended to an excessive and rather affected tenderness in his female figures; he was more successful in single figures and in portraits than in large compositions of incident. He finished with scrupulous minuteness, and was elaborate in decorations of patterning, gilding, &c.
The first known fresco of Simone is the vast one which he executed in the hall of the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena,— the Madonna Enthroned, with the Infant, and a number of angels and saints; its date is 1315, at which early period of his life he was already an artist of repute throughout Italy. In S. Lorenzo Maggiore of Naples he painted a life-sized picture of King Robert crowned by his brother,
Lewis, bishop of Toulouse; this also is ex'ant, but much damaged. In 1320 he painted for the high altar of the church of St Catharine in Pisa the Virgin and Child between six saints; above are archangels, apostles, and other figures. The compartmented portions of this work are now dispersed, some of them being in the academy of Siena. Towards 1321 he executed for the church of St Dominic in Orvieto a picture of the bishop of Savona kneeling before the Madonna attended by saints, now in the Fabricceria of the cathedral. Certain frescos in Assisi in the chapel of St Martin, representing the life of that saint, ascribed by Vasari to Puccio Capanna, are now, upon strong internal evidence, assigned to Sijnone. He painted also, in the south transept of the lower church of the same edifice, figures of the Virgin and eight saints. In 1328 he produced for the Sala del Consilio in Siena a work of a very different character—a striking equestrian portrait of the victorious general Guidoriccio Fogliani de’ Ricci.
Simone had married in 1324 Giovanna, the daughter of Memmo (Guglielmo) di Filippuccio. Her brother, named Lippo Memmi, was also a painter, and was frequently associated with Simone in his work; and this is the only reason why Simone has come down to us with the familyname Memmi. »They painted together in 1333 the Annunciation which is now in the Uffizi gallery. Simone kept a bottega (or shop), undertaking any ornamental work commissioned of him, and his gains were large. In 1339 he settled at the papal court in Avignon, where he made the acquaintance of Petrarch and Laura; and he painted for the poet a portrait of his lady, which has not come down to us; it gave occasion for two of Petrarch’s sonnets, in which Simone is highly eulogized. He also illuminated for the poet a copy of the Comment of Servius upon Virgil, now preserved in the Ambrosian library of Milan. He was largely employed in the decorations of the papal buildings in Avignon, and several of his works still remain —in the cathedral, in the hall of the consistory, and, in the two chapels of the palace, the stories of the Baptist, and of Stephen and other saints. One of his latest productions (1342) is the picture of Christ Found by his Parents in the Temple, now in the Liverpool Gallery. Simone died in Avignon in July 1344.
From this account of Simone’s principal works it will be perceived that those with which his name and fame are most generally identified are no longer regarded as his. These are the compositions, in the Campo Santo of Pisa, from the legend of S. Ranieri, and the Assumption of the Virgin; and the great frescos in the Cappellone degli Spagnuoli, in S. Maria Novella, Florence, representing the Triumph of Religion through the work of the Dominican order, &c. Some of the works in question can be proved to have been done many years after Simone’s death, and the others belong to a different school and style of art.
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