Bicci di Lorenzo (1373–1452) was an Italian painter and sculptor, active in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

. He was born in Florence in 1373, the son of the painter,

Lorenzo di Bicci Lorenzo di Bicci ( 1350 – 1427) was an Italian painter of the Florentine School considered to be one of the most important painters in Florence during the second half of the 14th century. He is believed to have learned his trade from his fathe ...

, whose workshop he joined. He married in 1418, and in 1424 was registered in the Guild of Painters at Florence. His son,

Neri di Bicci Neri di Bicci (1419–1491) was an Italian painter active in his native Florence. A prolific painter of mainly religious themes, he studied under his father, Bicci di Lorenzo, who had in turn studied under his father, Lorenzo di Bicci. The three ...

was also a painter and took over the family workshop. Bicci di Lorenzo died in Florence in 1452 and was buried in Santa Maria del Carmine. Following early work – largely frescoes – in collaboration with his father, he received a number of important commissions, including, according to

Vasari Giorgio Vasari (30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance painter, architect, art historian, and biographer who is best known for his work '' Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'', considered the ide ...

, from the

Medici The House of Medici ( , ; ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first consolidated power in the Republic of Florence under Cosimo de' Medici and his grandson Lorenzo "the Magnificent" during the first half of the 15th ...

for a cycle of frescoes of ''Illustrious Men'' for the Palazzo Medici. For the Opera del Duomo, he painted frescoes of the apostles. And he painted a ''Saints Cosmas and Damian'' and frescoes representing the dedication of the church itself for Sant'Egidio in the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova. Among his major works are an ''Enthroned Madonna'' now in the National Gallery at Parma; the ''Three Scenes from the Life of St Nicholas'', a triptych in the

cathedral of Fiesole Fiesole Cathedral (, ''Duomo di Fiesole''), officially the Cathedral of Saint Romulus of Fiesole, is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Fiesole, Tuscany, central Italy. It is the seat of the Bishop of Fiesole and is dedicated to Romulus of Fiesole, S ...

; and a ''Nativity'' in the church of

San Giovannino dei Cavalieri San Giovannino dei Cavalieri (''Young St. John the Baptist of the Knights'') previously named Church of San Giovanni Decollato (Decapitated St. John), is a parish church situated in Via San Gallo in central Florence, Italy. Initially the site held ...

in Florence. He frescoed the entrance to the Compagni chapel in the church of

Santa Trinita Santa Trinita (; Italian for "Holy Trinity") is a Roman Catholic church located in front of the ''piazza'' of the same name, traversed by Via de' Tornabuoni, in central Florence, Tuscany, Italy. It is the mother church of the Vallumbrosan Orde ...

, and in the area around Florence, there are frescoes at the Oratory of Sant'Antonio Abate, Pescia;

Empoli Empoli () is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany, Italy, about southwest of Florence, to the south of the Arno River, Arno in a plain formed by the river. The plain has been usable for agriculture since Ancient Ro ...

; and at

Lastra a Signa Lastra a Signa is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the metropolitan city of Florence in the Italian region Tuscany, located about west of Florence. Main sights *Hospital of Sant'Antonio (1411) *"Brunelleschi" Walls, although the attribution to the ...

. Tempera panels depicting '' Saints John the Baptist and Miniato'' and '' Saint Anthony and Saint Stephen'' are found in the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco.

Career and style

His training must have taken place in the workshop of his father

and amidst the influences of Agnolo Gaddi. Throughout his long life, he wasinfluenced by Lorenzo Monaco and with the relations with painters from the Marche region working in Florence, especially with

Gentile da Fabriano Gentile da Fabriano ( – 1427) was an Italian painter known for his participation in the International Gothic pictorial style. He worked in various places in central Italy, mostly in Tuscany. His best-known works are his '' Adoration of the ...

. Gentile was inspired by the ''Madonna of the Quaratesi altarpiece'' (1425), a work by Gentile, for the one (1433) now in the Galleria di Parma (the lateral ones are in the Pinacoteca Stuart in the same city), and freely copied its predella in the execution of the stories of St. Nicholas (two in the

Metropolitan Museum The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the third-largest museum in the world and the largest art museum in the Americas. With 5.36 million v ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

and one in the

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street in Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University ...

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

) that adorned the step of his dismembered work. At times, as in the ''Nativity'' (1435) of San Giovannino dei Cavalieri in

, he finds, with some

Beato Angelico Fra Angelico, O.P. (; ; born Guido di Pietro; 18 February 1455) was a Dominican friar and Italian Renaissance painter of the Early Renaissance, described by Giorgio Vasari in his ''Lives of the Artists'' as having "a rare and perfect talent". ...

resonance, spiritual accords with the Sienese, such as

Giovanni di Paolo Giovanni di Paolo di Grazia (''c.'' 1403–1482) was an Italian painter, working primarily in Siena, becoming a prolific painter and illustrator of manuscripts, including Dante's texts. He was one of the most important painters of the 15th cent ...

and

Sano di Pietro Sano may refer to: Geography * Sano, Kentucky, U.S. * Sano, Tochigi, Japan * Monte Sano Mountain, a mountain in Alabama, United States ** Monte Sano State Park * Wai Sano, a volcano in Flores, Indonesia Fiction * Sano (''Rurouni Kenshin''), a ch ...

. In his later works he has a slightly broader formal structure, which is not, however, to be put in relation to the fact that in 1441 Bicci di Lorenzo helped

Domenico Veneziano Domenico Veneziano (c. 1410 – May 15, 1461) was an Italian painter of the early Renaissance, active mostly in Perugia and Tuscany. Little is known of his birth, though he is thought to have been born in Venice, hence his last name. He then move ...

in the vanished frescoes of S. Egidio; for the Renaissance exercised no fascination on ours, who always remained resolutely Gothic.

References

External links

Bicci di Lorenzo at the National Gallery of Art
Washington DC

Career and style

References

External links

Further reading