Guido Riccio fresco in Siena

1333

Simone Martini painted Guido Riccio da Fogliano on horseback against the bleached siena hills in a commemorative mural in the Palazzo Pubblico. The condottiere rides alone across the landscape in a diamond-patterned surcoat, his fortified camps spread behind him. The image became the first great secular equestrian portrait of post-classical Europe, celebrating a military captain rather than a saint or ruler.