Traini, Francesco

(active 1321-1363)

   Italian painter from Pisa. To him are attributed the frescoes (1330s) in the Campo Santo adjacent to the Cathedral of Pisa depicting the Triumph of Death,an attribution questioned by some art historians who give the work instead to Buonamico Buffalmacco. Also attributed to Traini is the Triumph of St. Thomas Aquinas of c. 1340 painted for the Church of Santa Caterina in Pisa (some believe the work to have been painted by Lippo Memmi) where the saint is shown receiving wisdom from Christ, the Evangelists, and the philosophers of the ancient world, including Plato and Aristotle. Traini's only signed work is the St. Dominic Polyptych in the Museo Nazionale, Pisa, dated to 1344-1345, a painting that shows St. Dominic with book and lily in hand, surrounded by scenes from his life.