Akademik

(active c. 1270-1300)

   Italian painter and mosaicist active in Rome. Torriti obtained important commissions from Pope Nicholas IV, including the mosaics for the apses of St. John Lateran (c. 1291) and Santa Maria Maggiore (c. 1294), Rome. His work in the Lateran is barely recognizable as it was later almost completely reworked. At Santa Maria Maggiore he rendered the Coronation of the Virgin. This mosaic combines Byzantine, Gothic, and ancient elements, which sets it apart from other works created during this period. Christ and the Virgin are shown enthroned, surrounded by a heavenly sphere. The gold striations of the draperies and profusion of gilding throughout belong to the Byzantine (Maniera Greca) tradition, the subject itself stems from French Gothic sculpture prototypes, and the acanthus motifs around the figures are classical. Also classical are the fifth-century fragments showing a river god and a Roman sail ship that Torriti inserted into the mosaic. Torriti is also credited with the frescoes of the Creation on the vault of the Upper Church of San Francesco in Assisi (1290s), the attribution based on their stylistic similarities to the artist's Roman works.