The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (483 page)

(documented 1321–63).
Pisan painter. Only one work is certainly known to be by him—the signed
polyptych
of
St Dominic and Scenes from his Life
(Mus. Naz., Pisa, 1345). The most important works attributed to him are frescos in the Campo Santo in Pisa—the celebrated
Triumph of Death
, with accompanying scenes of the
Last Judgement, Hell
, and
Legends of the Hermits
. These, among the outstanding Italian paintings of the 14th cent., were badly damaged by bombs in the Second World War, but this brought to light, by way of partial compensation, the beautiful
sinopie
, which are now shown in the Museo delle Sinopie. The frescos include many telling details of death's victims and are usually seen as a reflection of the horrors of the Black Death of 1348, but some authorities consider them earlier, and recently there have been attempts to attribute them to the mysterious
Buffalmacco
.

 
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trecento
.

See
QUATTROCENTO
.

 
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(1832–98).
Russian businessman and art collector. From an early age he conceived the idea of a national gallery of Russian art, and he not only bought great numbers of paintings, but also commissioned contemporary artists to produce work (he gave much encouragement and assistance to the
Wanderers
). In 1892 he and his brother
Sergei
presented their collections to the city of Moscow, and the building in which they are housed was completed in 1902. The Tretyakov Gallery became the property of the State in 1918. It originally displayed foreign as well as Russian paintings, but since 1925 it has been devoted exclusively to Russian art, of which it has the finest collection in the world. In the 1980s and 1990s a major rebuilding and expansion of the gallery was carried out.

 
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(1656–1746).
Neapolitan painter, trained in Venice and working in Rome from 1678. He specialized in altarpieces and
cabinet pictures
and was one of the most popular and prolific Italian painters of his day, his sweet and colourful
Rococo
style challenging the classicism of
Maratta
.

 
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triptych
.

‘A picture or carving (or set of three such) in three compartments side by side, the lateral ones being usually subordinate, and hinged so as to fold over the central one’ (
OED
). Like the
diptych
, this form lent itself to the making of portable religious images, whose delicate inner surfaces were protected by the outer leaves, which might, however, also be painted or carved on their outer as well as their own inner surfaces. See also
POLYPTYCH
.

 
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(
c.
1586–1624).
Spanish painter, active mainly in Toledo, where he was a pupil of El
Greco
from 1603 to 1606. He is also known to have visited Italy, probably between 1606 and 1613. His style (notably his characteristically elongated proportions) owes much to El Greco, but Tristán is more sober, marking the transition from
Mannerism
to a more naturalistic approach (
The Adoration of the Shepherds
, Fitzwilliam, Cambridge, 1620).

 
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