Saint Matthew Giovanni di Paolo

Giovanni di Paolo remained resolutely independent throughout his long career, never aligning himself with any of the main trends in Sienese painting. His unique style is characterised by distorted figures and irrational spaces. In his Budapest work, a melancholic Saint Matthew rests his head on his right hand, while his attribute, the angel, is perhaps in the act of inspiring him to write his Gospel. The painting belonged to an altarpiece whose structure represented a transitional stage between the Gothic and the Renaissance types, but this is the only known example that can be reconstructed. The upper tier consisted of a series of evangelists in an arrangement reminiscent of a Gothic polyptych, placed above a rectangular Renaissance central panel divided by a large arch. In Siena at the time the work was made, late Gothic and Renaissance structures were being combined in a variety of unique and creative ways.