Focus on this artwork and explore the Controversy.
The Castle of Montemassi is clearly recognizable in the Guidoriccio. Therefore, it was long believed that this must be the fresco that Simone Martine was commissioned to paint by the Sienese city government in 1330. This assumption was challenged in 1977 by the American art historians Gordon Moran and Michael Mallory. At first, they claimed that while most of the fresco had indeed been painted by Martini, the central image of the horseman had not. They came to this conclusion because in their view horse and rider are not really part of the wider scene. They also pointed out that commander Guidoriccio da Fogliano changed his allegiance to on an enemy of Siena in 1333. It seemed unlikely that the Council of Nine would have tolerated the  portrait of "a turncoat" in such a prominent place in the town hall. Moran and Mallory suggested that the rider image was added to the fresco in 1351, after the death of Guidoriccio da Fogliano who had by then been reinstated as commander of the Sienese troops. Simone Martini died in 1344.This theory was at first not taken seriously at all, and later fiercely contested. Moran and Mallory have stated that they were systematically thwarted by prominent Italian art historians and by the Sienese authorities. Their publications were rejected by journals and not included in scholarly bibliographies and catalogs. They say that they were prevented from presenting their theory at conferences, and were not allowed to do further research in Siena.
bibliographies Guidoriccio da Fogliano Siena Simone Martini Montemassi portrait catalogs fresco