Vecchietta ( Lorenzo di Pietro) (
bapt. Siena, 11 Aug. 1410;
d Siena, 6 June 1480). One of the outstanding Sienese artists of the 15th century, a painter, sculptor, goldsmith, architect, and military engineer. His nickname, meaning ‘little old one’, first appears in 1442 and repeatedly thereafter in documents relating to him, but its origin is unknown. On stylistic grounds he is assumed to have been a pupil of
Sassetta, but he also came under the influence of Florentine art and his large-scale paintings have a monumentality rare in Siena in the
quattrocento. As a sculptor he worked in wood and marble and late in his career in bronze, this change in medium probably reflecting the influence of
Donatello, who was in Siena 1457–9.
The Risen Christ (1476, S. Maria della Scala, Siena) has something of Donatello's sinewy expressiveness. Donatello's influence may also account for the strength and plasticity of Vecchietta's later paintings, such as the fresco of
St Catherine (1461) in the Palazzo Pubblico, Siena (1461), and the triptych of the
Assumption of the Virgin (
c.1462) in Pienza Cathedral. Several of the leading Sienese artists of the next generation were taught by him, including probably
Francesco di Giorgio and
Neroccio de' Landi.