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Francesco Pesellino (probably 1422–July 29, 1457), also known as Francesco di Stefano, was an
]".
The commission is unusually well documented. The documents provide a detailed account of the commissioning process and the painting's completion and delivery. They also tell how on Pesellino's death in 1457, his widow began litigation against Pesellino's business partner over the cost of the unfinished work. A number of preparatory drawings for the painting also survive. The altarpiece was later cut up into six parts, probably in the eighteenth century, and has now been reassembled. One missing section (the lower right) is a modern reconstruction.
Early sources, such as Vasari's ''Lives of the Artists'', describe a number of other paintings by Pesellino, now lost, in prominent at the
National GalleryBoston cassoni panels''Italian Paintings: Florentine School''
a collection catalog containing information about Pesellino and his works (see ''Pesellino'', pages: 95-98). {{DEFAULTSORT:Pesellino, Francesco 1422 births 1457 deaths 15th-century Italian painters Quattrocento painters Italian male painters Italian Renaissance painters Painters from Florence Manuscript illuminators Catholic painters
Francesco Pesellino (probably 1422–July 29, 1457), also known as Francesco di Stefano, was an Italian Renaissance
The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the trans ...
painter active in Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
. His father was the painter Stefano di Francesco
Stefano di Francesco (died 1427) was an Italian (Florentine) painter, who probably died young, as he left a five-year-old son, and was outlived twenty years by his father-in-law, the painter Giuliano Pesello (1367–1446). His son was the painter ...
(died 1427), and his maternal grandfather was the painter Giuliano Pesello
Giuliano Pesello, born Giuliano d'Arrigo (sometimes spelled Arrigho) (ca. 1367 - 1446), was an Italian painter of the early Renaissance period, active mainly in Florence. He was a pupil of the painter Andrea del Castagno. Vasari states he painted ...
(1367–1446), from whose name the diminutive nickname "Pesellino" arose. After the death of his father in 1427, the young Pesellino went to live with his grandfather whose pupil he became. Pesellino remained in his grandfather's studio until the latter's death, when he began to form working partnerships with other artists, such as Zanobi Strozzi
Zanobi di Benedetto di Caroccio degli Strozzi (17 November 1412 – 6 December 1468), normally referred to more simply as Zanobi Strozzi, was an Italian Renaissance painter and manuscript illuminator active in Florence and nearby Fiesole. He wa ...
and Fra Filippo Lippi
Filippo Lippi ( – 8 October 1469), also known as Lippo Lippi, was an Italian painter of the Quattrocento (15th century) and a Carmelite Priest.
Biography
Lippi was born in Florence in 1406 to Tommaso, a butcher, and his wife. He was orp ...
. He married in 1442, and probably joined the Florentine painters' guild
The Guild of Saint Luke was the most common name for a city guild for painters and other artists in early modern Europe, especially in the Low Countries. They were named in honor of the Evangelist Luke, the patron saint of artists, who was identi ...
in 1447. In the following years he made for reputation with small, highly-finished works for domestic interiors, including religious panels for private devotional use and secular subjects for pieces of furniture (i.e. wedding chests and wainscoting).
Pesellino died of plague in Florence in 1457 at the age of 35. According to many art historians, his style "anticipated the developments of later Florentine painters such as Andrea del Verrocchio
Andrea del Verrocchio (, , ; – 1488), born Andrea di Michele di Francesco de' Cioni, was a sculptor, Italian painter and goldsmith who was a master of an important workshop in Florence. He apparently became known as ''Verrocchio'' after the su ...
and the Pollaiuoli Antonio
Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular male ...
and Piero del Pollaiuolo">Piero Piero is an Italian given name. Notable people with the name include:
*Piero Angela (1928–2022), Italian television host
*Piero Barucci (born 1933), Italian academic and politician
*Piero del Pollaiuolo (c. 1443–1496), Italian painter
*Piero de ...Works
According to Vasari, Pesellino painted the predella of Fra Filippo Lippi's ''Novitiate Altarpiece'' for Basilica di Santa Croce, Florence, Santa Croce. The predella is now divided between theUffizi
The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums ...
and the Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
.
Pesellino's only surviving documented work is the altarpiece
An altarpiece is an artwork such as a painting, sculpture or relief representing a religious subject made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting o ...
of the ''Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the F ...
'', commissioned in 1455 by the Confraternity of the Priests in Pistoia
Pistoia (, is a city and ''comune'' in the Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of a province of the same name, located about west and north of Florence and is crossed by the Ombrone Pistoiese, a tributary of the River Arno. It is a typi ...
and now at the National Gallery in London
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director of ...
. It was left incomplete on Pesellino's death in 1457 and was finished in 1460 by Filippo Lippi and his workshop, which painted the predella and altar frontal. The main panel, which is about 1.8 meters square, shows the Trinity as the "Throne of Mercy," with God the Father supporting the Crucified Christ in his lap. The Trinity is flanked by four standing saints: Mamas, James, Zeno and Jerome. The altarpiece retains four of its original predella panels while the remaining fifth is now at the Hermitage, St Petersburg
The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is the largest ...
. The altar frontal, depicting the ''Virgin of Mercy'', was formerly at the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
The Gemäldegalerie (, ''Painting Gallery'') is an art museum in Berlin, Germany, and the museum where the main selection of paintings belonging to the Berlin State Museums (''Staatliche Museen zu Berlin'') is displayed. It was first opened in ...
, and was destroyed in 1945.
The commission is unusually well documented. The documents provide a detailed account of the commissioning process and the painting's completion and delivery. They also tell how on Pesellino's death in 1457, his widow began litigation against Pesellino's business partner over the cost of the unfinished work. A number of preparatory drawings for the painting also survive. The altarpiece was later cut up into six parts, probably in the eighteenth century, and has now been reassembled. One missing section (the lower right) is a modern reconstruction.
Early sources, such as Vasari's ''Lives of the Artists'', describe a number of other paintings by Pesellino, now lost, in prominent at the Palazzo Medici
The Palazzo Medici, also called the Palazzo Medici Riccardi after the later family that acquired and expanded it, is a Renaissance palace located in Florence, Italy. It is the seat of the Metropolitan City of Florence and a museum.
Overview
T ...
and the Medici
The House of Medici ( , ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici, in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Muge ...
Casa Vecchia. At least one work by Pesellino is said to have hung in the same room as Paolo Uccello
Paolo Uccello ( , ; 1397 – 10 December 1475), born Paolo di Dono, was an Italians, Italian (Florentine) Florentine painting, painter and mathematician who was notable for his pioneering work on visual Perspective (graphical), perspective in art. ...
's ''Battle of San Romano
The Battle of San Romano was fought on 1 June 1432, in San Romano, some 30 miles outside Florence,Private Life of a Masterpiece, BBC TV between the troops of Florence, commanded by Niccolò da Tolentino, and Siena, under Francesco Piccinino. T ...
''.
Some panel painting
A panel painting is a painting made on a flat panel of wood, either a single piece or a number of pieces joined together. Until canvas became the more popular support medium in the 16th century, panel painting was the normal method, when not paint ...
s have been identified as Pesellino's by stylistic comparison with the altarpiece. These include two long horizontal panels with the ''Story of David and Goliath
Goliath ( ) ''Goləyāṯ''; ar, جُليات ''Ǧulyāt'' (Christian term) or (Quranic term). is a character in the Book of Samuel, described as a Philistine giant defeated by the young David in single combat. The story signified King Saul's ...
'' and the ''Triumph of David'', now at the National Gallery, London.Gordon:288-295 Other cassoni panels are in Bergamo
Bergamo (; lmo, Bèrghem ; from the proto- Germanic elements *''berg +*heim'', the "mountain home") is a city in the alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from Switzerland, the alpine lakes Como ...
(Accademia Carrara
The Accademia Carrara, (), officially Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti di Bergamo, is an art gallery and an academy of fine arts in Bergamo, in Lombardy in northern Italy. The art gallery was established in about 1780 by , a Bergamasco collect ...
) and Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
(Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts, which houses significant examples of European, Asian, and American art. Its collection includes paintings, sculpture, tapestries, and decorative arts. It was founded ...
), whilst the Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
and Toledo Museum of Art
The Toledo Museum of Art is an internationally known art museum located in the Old West End neighborhood of Toledo, Ohio. It houses a collection of more than 30,000 objects. With 45 galleries, it covers 280,000 square feet and is currently in th ...
have other works. A small diptych of the ''Annunciation'' at the Courtauld Institute
The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist coll ...
is another good example of the small-scale cabinet painting
A cabinet painting (or "cabinet picture") is a small painting, typically no larger than two feet (0.6 meters) in either dimension, but often much smaller. The term is especially used for paintings that show full-length figures or landscapes at a s ...
s that made Pesellino's famous.
The Hermitage has six very beautiful full-page miniatures by Pesellino from an illuminated manuscript
An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is often supplemented with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers, liturgical services and psalms, the ...
.
Notes
References
*National Gallery Catalogues (new series): ''The Fifteenth Century Italian Paintings'', Volume 1, byDillian Gordon
Dillian Rosalind Gordon OBE is a British art historian who worked as a curator at the National Gallery, London from 1978 to 2010, latterly as Curator of Italian Paintings before 1460. She lives in Oxford. She was appointed OBE in 2011 for servic ...
, 2003,
* Vasari, Giorgio, ''Le Vite delle più eccellenti pittori, scultori, ed architettori'', many editions and translations.
*Sheridan, Victoria, ''Inventing Pesellino: Biography, Language and Style in Art History'', M.A. Thesis (2003), University of California, Davis. OCLC#55762857
*Kanter, Laurence. "Pesellino," in ''Fra Angelico''. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005.
External links
National Gallery
a collection catalog containing information about Pesellino and his works (see ''Pesellino'', pages: 95-98). {{DEFAULTSORT:Pesellino, Francesco 1422 births 1457 deaths 15th-century Italian painters Quattrocento painters Italian male painters Italian Renaissance painters Painters from Florence Manuscript illuminators Catholic painters