• Was a Sienese painter.
• Berna di Siena painted several works in Tuscany, including many stories from the Old Testament in San Gimignano.
• It is believed that his pupil Giovanni d'Asciano assisted him on the frescoes and finished the left-over portions after Barna reportedly fell from a scaffolding and died supposedly at a young age.
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Giorgio Vasari referred in the first edition of his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (1550) to the Sienese painter ‘Berna’ who was responsible for frescos of Old Testament scenes in the Collegiata di San Gimignano.
• In the second edition of the Vite (1568) Vasari only connected the artist with the New Testament scenes in that church, dating them to the very end of Barna’s life, apparently to 1381.
• The Collegiata frescoes and other panel paintings attributed to the artist are all closely linked to the work of followers of
Simone Martini and the circle of
Lippo Memmi.
• Because of a lack of signed works Barna has been credited as the master of the Collegiata di San Gimignano.
Barna da Siena, The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine, c.
Original, Museum of Fine Arts,
Barna da Siena, The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine, c.
Barna da Siena, The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine, c.
Barna da Siena, The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine, c.
