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See also
COLLECTION:
Pietro
Perugino |
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Perugino
born c. 1450, , Citta della Pieve,near Perugia, Romagna
died , February/March 1523, Fontignano, near Perugia
byname of Pietro Di Cristoforo Vannucci Italian early Renaissance
painter of the Umbria school, the teacher of Raphael. His work
(e.g., “Giving of the Keys to St. Peter,” 1481–82, a fresco in the
Sistine Chapel, Rome) anticipated High Renaissance ideals in its
compositional clarity, sense of spaciousness, and economy of formal
elements.
Early work.
Nothing is known for certain of Perugino's early training, but he
may have been a pupil of Fiorenzo di Lorenzo (c. 1440–1525), a minor
painter in Perugia, and of the renowned Umbrian Piero della
Francesca (c. 1420–92) in Arezzo, in which case he would have been a
fellow pupil of one of his most famous contemporaries, Luca
Signorelli. The two men were acquainted, and an occasional influence
from Signorelliis visible in Perugino's work, notably in the
direction of an increased hardness of drawing (e.g., “Crucifixion
and Saints,”c. 1480–1500; Uffizi, Florence). In Florence, where he
is first recorded in 1472, he almost certainly worked in the shop of
the important painter and sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio, where the
young Leonardo da Vinci was apprenticed.
The first certain work by Perugino is a “Saint Sebastian,” at
Cerqueto, near Perugia. This fresco, or mural painted on plaster
with water-dissolved pigments, dates from 1478 and is typical of
Perugino's style. He must have attained a considerable reputation by
this time, since he probably worked for Pope Sixtus IV in Rome,
1478–79, on frescoes nowlost. Sixtus IV also employed him to paint a
number of the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican Palace.
Completed between 1481 and 1482, three narrative scenes behind the
altar were destroyed by Michelangelo in 1535–36 in order to use the
space for his fresco of the “Last Judgment.” Of the scenes
completely by Perugino's own hand, only the fresco “Giving of the
Keys to St. Peter” has survived. The simple and lucid arrangement of
the composition reveals the centre of narrative action, unlike
thefrescoes in the same series by the Florentine painter Sandro
Botticelli, which, in comparison, appear overcrowded and confused in
their narrative focus. After completing his work in the Sistine
Chapel, Perugino returned to Florence, where he was commissioned to
work in the Palazzo della Signoria. In 1491 he was invited to sit on
the committee concerned with finishing the Florence cathedral.
Mature work.
From approximately 1490 to 1500 Perugino was at his mostproductive
and at the artistic summit of his career. Among the finest of his
works executed during this time are the “Vision of St. Bernard,” the
“Madonna and Saints,” the “Pietà,” and the fresco of the
“Crucifixion” for the Florentine convent of Sta. Maria Maddalena dei
Pazzi. These works are characterized by ample sculpturesque figures
gracefully posed in simple Renaissance architectural settings, which
act as a frame to the images and the narrative. The harmonious space
is tightly controlled in the foreground and middle ground, while the
background effect is conversely one of infinite space. During this
period he painted his best known portrait, a likeness of “Francesco
delle Opere.” Perugino must have been well acquainted with the late
15th-century portraiture of Flanders, since the influence of the
Flemish painter Hans Memling is unmistakable.
Commissioned by the guild of bankers of Perugia, Perugino painted a
fresco cycle in their Sala dell'Udienza that is believed to have
been completed during or shortly after 1500, the date that appears
opposite Perugino's self-portrait in one of the scenes. The
importance of these frescoes lies less in their artistic merit than
in the fact that the young Raphael, Perugino's pupil around 1500,
probablywas an assistant learning the technique of fresco painting.
An allegorical figure of Fortitude from this series is often
attributed to Raphael.
Late work.
After 1500, Perugino's art began to decline, and he frequently
repeated his earlier compositions in a routine manner. Giorgio
Vasari, a 16th-century biographer and artist,wrote that the critical
Florentines began to lampoon him, andPerugino replied that they had
once praised his work, and, ifhe now gave the same designs, they had
no right to blame him. It is certainly true that the “Combat of Love
and Chastity” (Louvre, Paris) was commissioned in 1503 by Isabella
d'Este and was delivered only in 1505, after a great many letters
had passed between all concerned, at which time Isabella expressed
herself as satisfied but only moderately so. In fact, Perugino left
Florence about 1505 and began to work principally for the less
critical public of Umbria.
In 1508 he made a temporary comeback by painting roundels on the
ceiling of the Stanza dell'Incendio in the Vatican. The commission
for the frescoes on the walls of the room went to his pupil Raphael,
who, in the few years after leaving Perugino's studio, proved
himself the greater artist.
One of Perugino's last commissions was the completion in 1521 of
some frescoes in S. Severo, Perugia, which had been begun by
Raphael. He was still painting in February or March 1523 when he
died of the plague. The fresco of the “Nativity,” in the National
Gallery, London, comes from Fontignano and is generally supposed to
be Perugino's last work.
Peter J. Murray
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Cupola, Santa Maria del Fiore |
THE DOME OF SANTA MARIA DEL FIORE
In his enthusiastic report of
Filippo Brunelleschi's dome (1420-36)
for Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence,
Leon
Battista Alberti records
the "structure so great, challenging the sky. wide enough to cover
with its shadow all the people of Tuscany."
Brunelleschi's
Vita
and
Ghiberti's
Commentari give two very different
accounts of the competition for its design. The dome had to be set
on an existing octagonal drum constructed during the 14th century
according to a plan by
Arnolfo di Cambio. Manetti describes
Brunelleschi waiting to be called by the wardens of the cathedral
and the consuls of the Wool Guild, who would soon realise that he
was the only-architect capable of raising a dome large enough to
cover the tribune without the help of scallolding.
Ghiberti claimed
that the project was the result of a collaboration, which was then
abandoned, because he had other work to carry out.
Brunelleschi
dismissed "centering" and, instead, created a curtain wall and two
vaults that allowed the dome to support itself, rising towards the
lantern. The discovery of this engineering technique has always been
attributed to
Brunelleschi, who transformed and modernized this
14th-century building.
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Giorgio Vasari (1511-74)
Life of Filippo Brunelleschi
Florentine sculptor and architect, 1377 - 1446
The world having for so long been without
artists of lofty soul or inspired talent, heaven ordained that it
should receive from the hand of Filippo the greatest, the tallest,
and the finest edifice of ancient and modern times, demonstrating
that Tuscan genius, although moribund, was not yet dead.
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Crucifix, Santa Maria Novella
The Sacrifice of Isaac
Santa Maria del Fiore
Cupola interior
Lantern
Pazzi Chapel, Santa Croce,
Florence
Cloister of the men, Ospedale
degli Innocenti
San Lorenzo
Santo Spirito
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"Donatello made a wooden crucifix which was placed in
Santa Croce [and] he was anxious to hear Filippo's
opinion of it; but Filippo told him that he had shown a
peasant hanging on the cross. This provoked Donatello to
retort: 'Get some wood and do it yourself"...Filippo
kept quiet for a few months while he worked on a wooden
crucifix of the same size...Today this work is in Santa
Maria Novella." I-137
"[In the competition for the doors for the Baptistery]
the panel by Filippo was almost as good [as Ghiberti's]:
his scene of Abraham sacrificing Isaac showed a servant
who, as he waits for Abraham and while the ass is
grazing, is drawing a thorn from his foot." I-138
"[In 1417] the wardens of works of Santa Maria del Fiore called a congress of
local architects and engineers to discuss how to raise the cupola...Filippo's
advice was that they should construct a frieze thirty feet high, with a large
round window in each of its sides, since this would take the weight off the
supports of the tribunes." I-144
"There were some who suggested that the best method
would be to fill it with a mixture of earth and coins so
that when it was raised those who wanted could help
themselves to the earth, and in that way they would
quickly remove it all without expense. Filippo alone
said it could be raised without a great deal of
woodwork, without piers or earth." I-145
"The wardens said that his ideas were as mad as he was.
Filippo took offence at this and said: 'What is
necessary is that the cupola should be turned with the
curve of a pointed arch and made double, with one vault
inside and the other outside so that a man can walk
upright between them..I can already envisage the
complete vaulting and I know there is no way of doing it
other than as I'm explaining.'" I-145
"They were incapable of grasping what he [meant], but
showed themeselves inclined to give him the work. They
did however want to see how the cupola could be raised
without any centering..As it happens they were fortunate
because Bartolommeo Barbardori wanted a chapel built in
Santa Felicita and Filippo had had this chapel vaulted
without using framework." I-148
"Filippo's scaffolding was put up with such intelligence
and skill that it completely belied what people had been
saying before, because the masons stood there, working
safely and drawing up materials, as securely as if they
were on solid earth. (The models of his scaffolding are
preserved in the Office of Works)." I-154
"Everything was very carefully arranged...He had thought
of irons for fixing scaffolding inside, in case there
were a need to do mosaics or painting." I-157
"He continued to make such progress that there was
nothing, however difficult it might seem, that he did
not make easy and simple. For example, by using
counterweights and wheels for lifting he made it
possible for a single ox to raise a load so heavy that
previously it would hardly have been possible for six
pairs of oxen to move it." I-157
"Filippo also made a model for the lantern; this had eight sides and was in
proportion with the cupola and it was beautifully successful in invention,
variety and adornment...Because he was now old and would not see the lantern
finished he stipulated in his will that it should be built with the model and
the written instructions that he left." I-159
"As to how beautiful the edifice is, it is its
own witness. From ground level to the lantern the height
is 308 feet, the body of the lantern is 72 feet, the
copper ball is eight feet, the cross sixteen feet, and
the whole is 404 feet; and it can confidently be
asserted that the ancients never built to such a height
nor risked challenging the sky itself." I-160
"While all this work was going on Filippo made several other buildings which we
shall now describe in order. For the Pazzi family he made with his own hand the
model for the chapter house in Santa Croce at Florence, a work of great beauty
and variety." I-160
"And likewise, he made the
model for the house and loggia of the Innocenti, the
vaulting for which was completed without scaffolding, a
method still universally used today." I-160
"For Cosimo
de'Medici Filippo made the model of the abbey of the
Canons-regular of Fiesole, which is a richly decorated
piece of architecture, pleasing, commodious and
altogether magnificent." I-160
As the reconstruction of the Badia in Fiesole was not
begun until 1456, ten years after Brunelleschi's death,
Vasari's attribution is contested.
"The church, with its barrel
vaulting, is very spacious, and the sacristy, like all
the rest of the monastery, is very conveniently laid
out." I-161
"But most worth considering is the way in which, as the
building had to be erected on the slope of the mountain,
Filippo very intelligently made use of the foundation
where he put the cellars, laundries, bakehouses,
stables, kitchens, fuel stores, and any number of
convenient offices..." I-161
"At that time work was started on the church of San
Lorenzo at Florence..Cosimo [de' Medici] pushed the work
on with greater enthusiasm and it was because of his
solicitude that Filippo completed the sacristy and
Donatello made the stuccoes and the bronze doors and the
stone ornaments for the little doors." I-162
"It remained to construct the nave and the rest of the
church; the roofing for these was not completed till
after Filippo's death. Filippo left the finished model
of San Lorenzo and also completed part of the capitular
buildings for the priests." I-163
"Filippo also made the model for that curious church of
the Angeli, which was commissioned by the noble Scolari
family, and which remained unfinished as we see it
today; this, it is said, was because the Florentines
spent the money which had been put in the Monte for that
purpose to meet some expenses involved in the war
against the Lucchesi." I-164
"When the leaders of the Guelph Party in Florence
decided to put up a building with a hall and an audience
chamber for their headquarters...after the building had
been raised about twenty feet from the ground the work
was seen to be full of mistakes and it was given to
Filippo, who completed it as the magnificent structure
that we can see today." I-169
"Today the hall of that
palace is no longer used by the leaders of the party,
for when the papers of the Monte were badly damaged in
the flood of 1557 the Lord Duke Cosimo decided to put
the papers there." I-169
"So that the leaders [of the party] could make use of
the old palace his excellency commissioned from Giorgio
Vasari the commodious staircase which now leads to the
hall. The same artist also designed a stone balcony
which has now been placed on fluted pilasters of macigno."
I-170
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See also
COLLECTION: Lorenzo
Ghiberti |
Lorenzo Ghiberti
born c. 1378, , Pelago, Italy
died Dec. 1, 1455, Florence
important early Italian Renaissance sculptor, whose doors (“Gates of
Paradise”; 1425–52)for the Baptistery ofthe cathedral of Florence
are considered one of the greatest masterpieces of Italian art in
the Quattrocento. Otherworks include three bronze statues for Or San
Michele (1416–25) and the reliefs for Siena cathedral (1417–27).
Ghiberti also wrote three treatises on art history and theory.
Ghiberti's mother had married Cione Ghiberti in 1370, andthey lived
in Pelago, near Florence; at some point she went to Florence and
lived there as the common-law wife of a goldsmith named Bartolo di
Michele. They were married in 1406 after Cione died, and it was in
their home that LorenzoGhiberti spent his youth. It is not certain
which man was Ghiberti's father, for he claimed each as his father
at separate times. But throughout his early years, Lorenzo
considered himself Bartolo's son, and it was Bartolo who trained the
boy as a goldsmith. Ghiberti also received training as a painter; as
he reported in the autobiographical part of his writings, he left
Florence in 1400 with a painter to work in the town of Pesaro for
its ruler, Sigismondo Malatesta.
Ghiberti returned quickly to his home city when he heard, in1401,
that a competition was being held for the commission to make a pair
of bronze doors for the Baptistery of the cathedral of Florence. He
and six other artists were given thetask of representing the
biblical scene of Abraham's sacrificeof Isaac in a bronze relief of
quatrefoil shape. The entry panels of Ghiberti and of Filippo
Brunelleschi are the sole survivors of the contest. Ghiberti's
panels displayed a graceful and lively composition executed with a
mastery of the goldsmith's art. In 1402 Ghiberti was chosen to make
the doors by a large panel of judges; their decision brought
immediate and lasting recognition and prominence to the young
artist. The contract was signed in 1403 with Bartolo di Michele's
workshop—overnight the most prestigious in Florence—and in 1407
Lorenzo legally took over the commission.
The work on the doors lasted until 1424, but Ghiberti did not devote
himself to this alone. He created designs for the stained-glass
windows in the cathedral; he regularly served as architectural
consultant to the cathedral building supervisors, although it is
unlikely that he actually collaborated with Brunelleschi on the
construction of the dome as he later claimed. The Arte dei Mercanti
di Calimala, the guild of the merchant bankers, gave him another
commission, around 1412, to make a larger than life-size bronze
statue of their patron saint, John the Baptist, for a niche on the
outside of the guilds' common building, Or San Michele. The job was
a bold undertaking, Ghiberti's first departure from goldsmith-scale
work; it was, in fact, the first large bronze in Florence. Ghiberti
successfully finished the “St. John” in 1416, adding gilding in the
following year. The technical achievement and the modernity of its
style brought Ghiberti commissions for two similarly large bronze
figures for guild niches at Or San Michele: the “St. Matthew” in
1419 for the bankers' guild and the “St. Stephen” for the wool guild
in 1425.
These last two commissions brought Ghiberti into open competition
with the newly prominent younger sculptors Donatello and Nanni di
Banco, who had made stone statues for Or San Michele after
Ghiberti's first figure there. The “St. John” was a frail figure
enveloped by flowing draperies. It is characteristic of the style
art historians call InternationalGothic, which swept Europe in the
late 14th century and was quite new in Florence in the early 15th
century. Ghiberti's “St. John” combined the soft draperies and
closely observed,small-scale details in a sculpture larger than
life. Donatello's“St. Mark” and “St. George” and Nanni di Banco's
“St. Philip” and “Quattro Coronati” (“Four Crowned Saints”) were as
large as Ghiberti's figure but were designed with monumental
proportions to match their scale. The boldness and strength of the
weighty new classical figures constituteda challenge for Ghiberti,
but he met it with success in his next sculptures, and maintained
his preeminent position as aleading artist in Florence.
The teens and '20s were years of flourishing expansion for Ghiberti
and his firm. He had completed a great deal of the modelling and
casting of the panels for the Baptistery doors by 1413, and he was
in control of a smoothly functioning workshop with many assistants.
In 1417 Ghiberti was askedto make two bronze reliefs for the
baptismal font of the cathedral in Siena; he was so busy that he
only finished them, under pressure from the Sienese authorities, 10
years later. In 1419, when Pope Martin V was in Florence, Ghiberti
was called on as a goldsmith to fashion a morse and mitre forthe
Pontiff; unfortunately these pieces, like other examples of
Ghiberti's art in rare stones and precious metals, have disappeared.
During these years, too, Lorenzo found a wife—Marsilia, the
16-year-old daughter of Bartolomeo di Luca, a wool carder. She soon
bore him two sons: Tommaso was born in 1417 and Vittorio the next
year; his sons later joined Ghiberti in his business, and Vittorio
continued its operation after his father's death. Ghiberti's
artistic success also had its financial rewards; a surviving tax
returnof 1427 lists property in Florence, land out of town, and a
substantial amount of money invested in government bonds to his
credit. Over the years, his real estate and monetary holdings
continued to grow. In addition to being well paid, Ghiberti was a
businessman who managed his affairs shrewdly. He was a well-to-do
member of Florentine society and a rich man among the artists of his
time.
Ghiberti was actively involved with and interested in other artists
and their work; some (Donatello, Paolo Uccello, Michelozzo, Benozzo
Gozzoli) had worked for a time in his workshop as young assistants.
Ghiberti's association with the painter Fra Angelico is documented:
Ghiberti designed the frame for his “Linaiuoli Altarpiece.” In his
commentaries, Ghiberti exaggerates only a bit when he proudly claims
that “few important things were done in our city which were not
devised or designed by my hand”; among his undocumented works may be
noted some half-dozen floor tombs and sarcophagi, but the vast
extent to which Ghiberti's providing of designs and models
influenced Florentine art is hard to measure. He appears to have
shared his knowledge and talent generously and freely. Long before
the completion of his second pair of doors (the “Gates of Paradise”)
in 1452, the fund of figures and models assembled in connection with
this work, which the public sawonly later, was open to painters of
frescoes in the Chiostro Verde (Green Cloister) of SS. Annunziata
and to the sculptor Luca della Robbia, who was working on a marble
singing gallery for the cathedral. Naturally, the impact of the
“Gates” increased after they were installed.
When he was 45 years old, Ghiberti finished the first doors. They
are the effort of more than 20 years of work and the major
sculptural complex of the International Gothic style in Italy. They
show some changes in the latest parts, however, to a more classical
style that emphasizes the bodies of figures more than the elegant
draperies that enfold them. Ghiberti created expressive, strong
faces based on examples he knew of ancient Roman art—portrait busts
and carved sarcophagi. Because of the success of the first doors,a
contract was soon signed with the Calimala for a second pair, but
the political and financial fortunes of the city and the guild did
not permit work to get underway for about five years.
Following the completion of the first doors, Ghiberti embarked on a
decade of intense exploration of new ways of forming pictorial space
and making gracefully active and lifelike figures. His works of the
late 1420s show him able to make space increasingly intelligible in
a series of clearly receding planes; using shallow relief, Ghiberti
depicted volumes of bodies and deep architectural spaces. Examples
of these are the reliefs in Siena; the Dati Tomb (the bronze plaque
for the floor tomb of the Dominican general Leonardo Dati); and the
two shrines in Florence, “Cassa di S. Zenobius” (a bronze casket
with relief panels of stories from the saint's life) and “Shrine of
SS. Protus, Hyacinth, and Nemesius” (a bronze container for the
relics of three martyrs). It is likely that at this time Ghiberti
encountered Leon Battista Alberti, a young Humanist scholar, who,
inspired by the new art in Florence, was composing theoretical
treatises on the visual arts. Their mutual belief that beauty was
synonymous with the conception they shared of antique art makes it
difficult to know whether or not Alberti's ideas in De pictura (On
Painting) precede the three panels of the second door (Isaac,
Joseph, and Solomon), which are the visual equivalent of those
ideas. The beauty of antique art meant for both Alberti and Ghiberti
an idealization of nature; capturing its essence meant revealing
life by depicting movement, life's most salient visible
characteristic. For the representation of a realistic spatial
setting for these naturalistic figures, Alberti's treatise sets
forth a perspective system for projecting such spaces onto the
picture plane of a painting or bas-relief. Ghiberti's three panels
seem an embodiment of the Humanist's formulations for Renaissance
pictorial art, and it is clear that any assessment of his art must
account for the incorporation of the new theory as well as for the
beauty and charm of these works. Ghiberti was himself so proud that
he claimed to have made, in all 10 panels,
architectural settings in the relation with which the eye
measures them, and real to such a degree that. . . one
sees the figures which are near appear larger,
and those that are far off smaller, as reality shows it.
Ghiberti's writings, I Commentarii (probably completed around 1447),
shed more light on his Humanist interests.The commentaries are
composed of three books. The first, a history of art in ancient
times, is Ghiberti's digest of writings of Latin authors he had read
on the subject; in it he reveals his belief that the inseparability
of practice and theory is responsible for the excellence of ancient
art. The second book records the art of the immediate past, and
Ghiberti expresses his admiration for certain Sienese painters and
for a late 14th-century northern goldsmith named Gusmin who is known
only through Ghiberti's pages; this book includes an autobiography,
in which Ghiberti establishes his place in the history of art. The
last book was apparently more theoretical, but in the surviving
manuscript it is fragmentary. The commentaries demonstrate
Ghiberti's confidence in his position as an important leader in the
Florentine Renaissance—one interested in recapturing the art of the
ancients and studyingit as a Humanist scholar would, and one who
developed a new style all'antica in which he freely created art
works with a grace and beauty that have been found winning since
their invention.
Constance Lowenthal
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See also COLLECTION:
Jacopo della
Quercia
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Jacopo Della Quercia
The greatest Sienese sculptor of the 15th century, Jacopo della
Quercia (c.1371-1438) was a contradictory man whose work
successfully combined Gothic and Renaissance elements. His tomb for
Maria del Carretto is one of the most serene masterpieces of its
time. The reliefs for San Pietro in Bologna show a classical energy
and strong realism; they inspired Michelangelo, who saw them in
1494. Among his other masterpieces are the Fonte Gaia (1414-19) in
Siena and the polyptych of the Trenta family at San Frediano, Lucca.
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 Tomb of Ilaria del Carretto (detail)
1406-13
Marble
Cathedral of San Martino, Lucca
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THE COMPETITION OF 1401
In 1401, the Arte di Calimala, a merchant guild,
commissioned a competition for the design of a pair of bronze doors
for the Baptistry in Florence. The subject given was the sacrifice
of Isaac by his father Abraham. Seven Florentine sculptors were
chosen to compete, including the young
Lorenzo Ghiberti
(1378-1455), a trained painter and goldsmith, and
Filippo Brunelleschi
(1377-1446). In both reliefs, the theme is of divine intervention.
The boy is on the altar with his father putting the knife to his
throat; the angel intervenes, and the ram is visible in the
background. The ass drinks water between the two servants. The guild
preferred
Ghibeiti's subtle, beautiful, and more spiritual
composition, but
Brunelleschi's
is the more dramatic and daring work, full of naturalistic
observations and tensions.
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THE PATH OF EUROPEAN NATURALISM
In the North, Flemish art was transformed by the dramatic and lively
naturalistic style, which had its roots in Florence and travelled
north via Burgundy. The Flemish environment, which nurtured
Jan van Eyck
(died 1441) and the Master of Flemalle, (thought to be
Robert Campin,
active 1406-44), was a place of learning and of the diffusion of
knowledge, as were Burgundy and central southern Germany. They were
all receptive to influences and new ideas from elsewhere. Here,
Konrad Witz (c. 1400-46) achieved his forceful vision of realism
through sculptural form and a meticulous attention to detail, while
Stephan Lochner (1410-51) used shaded colours and a luminous
opalescence, reminiscent of the work of Stefano da Verona
(1379-c.1438). The network of ecclesiastical and trading
relationships that was active in the 15th century favoured a
continuous exchange of works and ideas between countries. The work
of the great French miniaturist and painter
Jean Fouquet (1420-81)
spanned and combined elements of Flemish, French, and Italian
painting. The works resulting from his stay in Rome in 1447, such as
the Diptych of Melun (c.1450), echo the Roman style of
Filarete,
Fra Angelico, and
Masolino, while his miniatures, such as
the Antiquites judaiques, reveal his imagination at its most
expressive. Another artist who was able to blend Flemish influences
with those of the Po Valley was the Spaniard
Bartolome Bermejo
(c.1440-1500), whose work shows strong links with
van Eyck's intense
naturalism. This Spanish style, which was resonant with Flemish and
Burgundian echoes, reached Naples and influenced the work of
Colantonio (active c.1440-70) and members of his workshop. Ludovico
Sforza, the Duke of Milan, also arranged for illuminated codices for
wedding plans to be despatched from the principal Milanese studios
to the court of Aragon. It might have been expected that this
variety would result in an uneasy juxtaposition of conflicting
styles, but the clear and penetrating naturalism of the portraits of
Antonello da Messina, as well as those by
Colantonio himself, prove
this was a successful combination.
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Stefano da Verona
(Stefano da Zevio)
(b 1374–5; d c. ?1438).
Italian painter. He was the son of JEAN D’ARBOIS. Vasari
first called him Stefano da Verona; in documents he appears
as Stefano di Giovanni. The name da Zevio (Stephanus de
Gebeto), adopted by local historians, arose from a confusion
with Altichiero. Local historians, probably because of
Vasari’s chronological incoherence in calling him a student
of both Agnolo Gaddi and Liberale da Verona, were also
responsible for the creation of other apocryphal Stefanos.
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Tres figuras de pie
1438 |
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Madonna in the Rosary
c. 1410
Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona |
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Adoration of the Magi
1435
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan |
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Cutting from an Antiphonary
1375
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See also
COLLECTION:
Lorenzo
Ghiberti
Jacopo della
Quercia
Pietro
Perugino
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