Quattrocento Tempera Painting in Ferrara

attributed to Angelo Maccagnino
St Mary of Egypt
ca. 1447-56
tempera on panel
Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona

Angelo Maccagnino
Portrait of a Lady
ca. 1447-56
tempera on panel
Museo Correr, Venice

The early life and training of Angelo Maccagnino, born in Siena, is poorly documented.  His surviving works were created in Ferrara, where from the mid 1440s to the mid 1450s he served first in the court of Leonello d'Este, and subsequently in that of Leonello's brother and successor Borso.  In Ferrara, Maccagnino was influenced by recently imported works of the innovative Netherlandish painter Rogier van der Weyden

Cosmè Tura
Trial of St Maurelius
1480
tempera on panel
Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara

Cosmè Tura
Martyrdom of St Maurelius
1480
tempera on panel
Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara

Cosmè Tura
St George and the Dragon
ca. 1460-65
tempera on panel
Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara

Cosmè Tura
Portrait of a Young Man of the Este Family
ca. 1470-80
tempera on panel
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Cosmè Tura
Adoration of the Magi
ca. 1480
tempera on panel
Harvard Art Museums

"Cosmè Tura, born about 1433, the son of a Ferrarese shoemaker, spent nearly all his known career in Ferrara.  Beginning in 1451 he worked regularly for Borso d'Este and Ercole I d'Este, and carried out private commissions from leading families for chapels in local churches.  Tura's artistic beginnings are difficult to trace because neither records of his training nor documented early works survive.  . . .  Much of Tura's documented work as court painter for the Estensi consisted of festive decorations – triumphal cars, harnesses, parade banners, shields, and caparisons – and he designed tapestries and silver vessels for the rulers of Ferrara; such pieces must have encouraged his decorative and lively painting style.  Unfortunately, nearly all of his secular work is now lost.  . . .  Although he lived until April 1495, Tura's documented activity for the Este court ends in the mid-1480s, and we have no evidence that he worked on any major commissions during his last ten years, when he was apparently in poor health.  Besides, Tura's lively, linear manner was losing favor during the 1480s.  After his activity at the Este court ceased, Ercole de' Robert's more moderate style, with broader figures and softer modeling, came to prevail."

– from biographical notes at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Ercole de' Roberti
and Giovanni Francesco Maineri
Lucretia, Brutus and Collatinus
ca. 1490
tempera on panel
Palazzo dei Musei, Modena

Ercole de' Roberti
Portia and Brutus
ca. 1486-90
tempera on panel
Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Ercole de' Roberti
Institution of the Eucharist
(predella fragment)
ca. 1490-95
tempera on panel
National Gallery, London

Ercole de' Roberti
Institution of the Eucharist (detail)
(predella fragment)
ca. 1490-95
tempera on panel
National Gallery, London

Ercole de' Roberti
Israelites gathering Manna (detail)
(predella fragment)
ca. 1490-95
tempera on panel
National Gallery, London

Ercole de' Roberti
Israelites gathering Manna (detail)
(predella fragment)
ca. 1490-95
tempera on panel
National Gallery, London

Ercole de' Roberti
Israelites gathering Manna (detail)
(predella fragment)
ca. 1490-95
tempera on panel
National Gallery, London

Ercole de' Roberti
St Michael Archangel
(fragment of Griffoni Polyptych)
ca. 1470-73
tempera on panel
Musée du Louvre

"Roberti was born by the mid-1450s, presumably in Ferrara.  . . .  In early 1479 Roberti is recorded as having established a workshop in Ferrara.  . . .  By 1486 he was working in Ferrara as court painter for Ercole I d'Este, and remained there until his death in 1496.  Much of his work for the Estensi consisted of such ephemera as triumphal cars and pennants; he also decorated wedding chests for the Este princesses Isabella and Beatrice (1489-90).  . . .  Roberti's high reputation was fixed by Vasari's Vite, and the centuries could do little to erode it.  Indeed, the Italian connoisseur Roberto Longhi judged Roberti to be the leading artist in Italy toward the end of the fifteenth century, equaled perhaps only by Leonardo.  Roberti's essential contribution was to fuse the mannered, artificial style of Ferrara with contemporary Venetian art, Netherlandish painting, German engravings, and classical sculpture and architecture.  His surviving oeuvre of about thirty-five paintings and drawings is rich, varied, and marked by a high level of technical competence."

– from biographical notes at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Quattrocento Tempera Painting in Venice

Antonio Vivarini
Virgin and Child
ca. 1435-45
tempera on panel
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Antonio Vivarini
Christ in the Sepulchre
ca. 1450
tempera on panel
Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna

Antonio Vivarini
St Peter Martyr reattaching a Severed Leg
ca. 1450-60
tempera on panel
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Antonio and Bartolomeo Vivarini
Christ in the Sepulchre
(detail of Virgin and Child polyptych)
ca. 1450
tempera on panel
Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna

Bartolomeo Vivarini
Polyptych of the Nativity
1475
tempera on panel
Gallerie dell' Accademia, Venice

Bartolomeo Vivarini
Virgin and Child
ca. 1475
tempera on panel
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Bartolomeo Vivarini
Death of the Virgin
1485
tempera on panel
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Bartolomeo Vivarini
Death of the Virgin (detail)
1485
tempera on panel
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

"Bartolomeo Vivarini, born in Murano, was about a decade younger than his brother, Antonio Vivarini.  He evidently trained with his brother, and when Antonio's brother-in-law and partner, Giovanni d'Alemagna, died in 1450, Bartolomeo took his place in the studio.  The two painters signed works jointly over the next decade.  After the early 1460s they do not seem to have collaborated artistically, but they continued to maintain a commercial relationship as a family firm."

"By the mid 1460s Bartolomeo was executing paintings similar to those of his contemporaries Carlo Crivelli, Marco Zoppo, and Giorgio Schiavone.  Like theirs, his works were extremely linear, with hard surfaces, sculpturesque forms, and decorative schemes incorporating putti, swags of fruit and vegetation, and classical architectural elements.  . . .  He maintained a large and productive studio and received many important commissions in Venice and the provinces.  But since Bartolomeo never developed artistically beyond this point, his works gradually lapsed into routine and formula, and his popularity waned."

– from biographical notes at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Jacopo Bellini
St John the Evangelist and St Peter
(altarpiece fragments)
ca. 1430-35
tempera on panel
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

Jacopo Bellini
Virgin and Child
ca. 1444
tempera on panel
Accademia Carrara, Bergamo

Jacopo Bellini
The Crucifixion
ca. 1450
tempera on panel
Museo Correr, Venice

Giovanni Bellini
Blood of the Redeemer
ca. 1460-65
tempera on panel
National Gallery, London

Gentile Bellini
Portrait of Doge Giovanni Mocenigo
ca. 1480-85
tempera on panel
Frick Collection, New York

"Gentile Bellini became the official painter to the Venetian Republic, having collaborated with his father, Jacopo, until his death in 1471.  In 1474 Gentile was commissioned to redecorate the Sala del Maggior Consiglio in the Doge's Palace.  In September 1479, Sultan Mehmed of the Turks requested, through a special envoy, the services of a sculptor, a bronze founder, and some painters, and the Senate ordered Gentile to go to Constantinople, abandoning his work on the Council Chamber.  His place was taken by his younger brother Giovanni.  . . .  Gentile returned to Venice by the end of November 1480, rejoining the team in the Doges' Palace and continuing his practice as a portrait painter."

– from biographical notes at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Vittore Carpaccio
Meditation on the Passion
ca. 1490
tempera on panel
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Vittore Carpaccio
Life of St Ursula Cycle
Pilgrims met by Pope Cyriac before the Walls of Rome
ca. 1492-93
tempera on canvas
Gallerie dell' Accademia, Venice

"Carpaccio is an Italianized form of Scarpanza, the name of the Venetian merchant family into which the artist was born.  Nothing definite is known about Carpaccio's training and early career, although it is likely that he apprenticed in the Bellini studio, where he probably worked with both Gentile and Giovanni Bellini.  . . .  With their narrative directness, spatial clarity, multiplicity of figures, and decorative richness, Carpaccio's narrative pictures stand directly in the tradition of Venetian history painting that is exemplified by comparable works of Gentile Bellini.  Yet a strikingly distinctive personality emerges as well, in their lively anecdote, vivid humanity, and fantastic architectural and landscape settings."  

– from biographical notes at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Quattrocento Tempera Painting in Siena

Sassetta (Stefano di Giovanni)
The Way to Calvary
(altarpiece fragment)
ca. 1437-44
tempera on panel
Detroit Institute of Arts

Sassetta (Stefano di Giovanni)
St Francis renounces his Earthly Father
(altarpiece fragment)
ca. 1437-44
tempera on panel
National Gallery, London

"Known as Sassetta since the 18th century, Stefano di Giovanni was the most important artist in 15th-century Siena, where he probably trained with Benedetto di Bindo and where he was inscribed with the guild of painters before 1428."

– from biographical notes at the National Gallery, London

"His first certain work (1423-1426) demonstrates that by this time he had already achieved a very high level of technical refinement and poetic invention, and it testifies to his awareness of the artistic innovations developed in Florence by Gentile da Fabriano, Masolino, and others of his generation." 

– from biographical notes at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Sano di Pietro
St Catherine of Siena
ca. 1442
tempera on panel
Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht

Sano di Pietro
The Crucifixion
ca. 1445
tempera on panel
Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht

"Sano was one of the most prolific and successful Sienese painters, the head of a workshop that satisfied the demands of civic and religious institutions in the city as well as those of private devotion.  His production, technically always of a very fine quality, rich in decorative effects, and characterized by a brilliant palette, often contains motifs that appear monotonous and repetitive.  . . .  Along with works on a monumental scale, he produced numerous small panels, in response to the religious needs of a wide audience, and particularly to the spiritual tendencies represented in the Franciscan observance movement promoted by Saint Bernardino and the Sienese order of the Gesuati."  

– from biographical notes at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Domenico di Bartolo
Madonna of Humility
1433
tempera on panel
Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena

Domenico di Bartolo
Virgin and Child enthroned
with St Paul and St Peter
ca. 1430
tempera on panel
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Master of the Osservanza
The Resurrection
ca. 1440-45
tempera on panel
Detroit Institute of Arts

Master of the Osservanza
Baptism of St Augustine within Initial L
(cutting from a choir book)
ca. 1430
tempera on vellum
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

"Like many artists of the 1400s, especially in Siena, the artist known as the Master of the Osservanza was both a panel painter and manuscript illuminator.  Scholars named him for a triptych in a church just outside of Siena.  The Church of the Osservanza was named for a reform movement among Franciscan friars trying to return to the purity of Saint Francis's ideals."

– from biographical notes at the Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Domenico di Michelino
The Expulsion from Paradise
ca. 1450-75
tempera on panel
Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht

Domenico di Michelino
The Expulsion from Paradise (detail)
ca. 1450-75
tempera on panel
Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht

Matteo di Giovanni
Adoration of the Magi
(altarpiece with St Barbara Enthroned below)
1479
tempera on panel
Basilica Cateriniana San Domenico, Siena

Matteo di Giovanni
St Barbara Enthroned
(altarpiece with Adoration of the Magi above)
1479
tempera on panel
Basilica Cateriniana San Domenico, Siena

"Matteo di Giovanni, born in Sansepolcro, is first mention in Siena, where he is documented in 1452 and then again in 1453 and 1457.  In these years Matteo, who must still have been quite young, appears as a partner of Giovanni di Pietro, with whom he shared a workshop.  . . .  By [1470], the head of a successful workshop, he aimed at a robust plasticism, but also – probably stimulated by the art of Pollaiuolo – at the precisely described anatomic structure of his figures; at the same time, however, he never lost sight of the ideals of grace and preciousness favored by his Sienese patrons." 

– from biographical notes at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Benvenuto di Giovanni
Dead Christ supported by Angels
(altarpiece with Virgin and Child Enthroned below)
1483
tempera on panel
Basilica Cateriniana San Domenico, Siena

Benvenuto di Giovanni
Virgin and Child Enthroned, with Saints and Angels
(altarpiece with Dead Christ supported by Angels above)
1483
tempera on panel
Basilica Cateriniana San Domenico, Siena

Benvenuto di Giovanni
Virgin and Child Enthroned, with Saints and Angels (detail)
1483
tempera on panel
Basilica Cateriniana San Domenico, Siena

Quattrocento Tempera Painting in Florence III

Neri di Bicci
Coronation of the Virgin
ca. 1460-61
tempera on panel
Palazzo Pretorio, Prato

Neri di Bicci
Virgin and Child with Angels
ca. 1460
tempera on panel
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio

Neri di Bicci
Martyrdom of St Sebastian
with St Blaise and St Anthony Abbot
ca. 1475-90
tempera on panel
Chiesa di San Biagio, Montecatini Val di Cecina

"Neri di Bicci was the second son and pupil of Bicci di Lorenzo.  He was the last artist in a family whose workshop can be traced back to his grandfather, Lorenzo di Bicci.  Under Neri's direction the workshop was extremely successful and catered to a wide number of patrons.  The details of its activity, including the names of the many pupils and assistants that passed through it, are recorded from 1453 to 1475 in the workshop diary.  This journal, the most extensive surviving document relating to a 15th-century painter, is preserved in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.  . . .  Though active throughout most of the 15th century, Neri remained faithful, at least in content, to the tradition established by his father and grandfather.  . . .  Of his four sons and two daughters, not one became an artist."

– from biographical notes at the National Gallery of Canada  

Andrea del Verrocchio and workshop
Tobias and the Angel
ca. 1470
tempera on panel
National Gallery, London

Andrea del Verrocchio and Lorenzo di Credi
Virgin and Child with Two Angels
ca. 1476-79
tempera on panel
National Gallery, London

Andrea del Verrocchio and Lorenzo di Credi
Virgin and Child with Two Angels (detail)
ca. 1476-79
tempera on panel
National Gallery, London

"Verrocchio trained not only as a goldsmith and sculptor, but also as a painter, probably with the early Renaissance master Fra Filippo Lippi.  Verrocchio's altarpieces and devotional pictures are distinguished by their emphatic sense of three-dimensional space and volume, derived from his experience in sculpture.  They reveal a subtle play of light and shadow, and fine detail in the rendering of objects such as veils, cloths, and brooches.  The artist ran a busy workshop with many gifted collaborators and students, including Leonardo da Vinci, Pietro Perugino, Lorenzo di Credi, Domenico Ghirlandaio, and Sandro Botticelli.  Leonardo spent his formative years in the master's studio, where he learned to model in light and dark and to depict energetically twisting figures.  Above all, Leonardo and other pupils acquired from Verrocchio a spirit of inquiry and experimentation in the making of art.  As a Florentine humanist wrote in the early 1500s, "Whatever painters have that is good, they drank from Verrocchio's spring."  

– from biographical notes at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Domenico Ghirlandaio and workshop
Man of Sorrows
ca. 1475
tempera on panel
Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht

Domenico Ghirlandaio
Portrait of a Young Man
ca. 1480-90
tempera on panel
National Gallery, London

Domenico Ghirlandaio
Portrait of a Young Woman
ca. 1490
tempera on panel
Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon

"Born in 1449, Domenico di Tommaso Bigordi was called Ghirlandaio because his goldsmith father specialized in creating gold and silver garlands (ghirlande).  Though presumably trained in his father's profession, Ghirlandaio worked under Alesso Baldovinetti, according to Vasari.  And he may also have assisted Andrea del Verrocchio, as his early panel paintings and frescoes clearly betray that master's influence.  In temperament and approach, however, Ghirlandaio differed from both of his putative painting teachers.  "Pronto, presto, e facile," as Vasari described him, Ghirlandaio simplified their painstakingly realistic styles into one more suitable for fresco.  The artist was, in fact, primarily active in that medium, creating extensive fresco cycles.  . . .  To complete such vast undertakings, Ghirlandaio employed a highly organized workshop, which included his brothers Davide and Benedetto but also his brother-in-law Sebastiano Mainardi, and even the young Michelangelo."    

– from biographical notes at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Davide Ghirlandaio
Portrait of Selvaggia Sassetti
ca. 1487-88
tempera on panel
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Sandro Botticelli
The Birth of Venus
1484-85
tempera on panel
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Sandro Botticelli
Pallas and the Centaur
ca. 1482
tempera on canvas
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Bartolomeo della Gatta
The Annunciation (detail)
ca. 1480
tempera on panel
Musée du Petit Palais, Avignon

Raffaellino del Garbo
The Annunciation
ca. 1490
tempera on panel
Chiesa di San Donato in Polverosa

Piero di Cosimo
Mary Magdalen Reading
ca. 1490-95
tempera on panel
Palazzo Barberini, Rome

"Piero di Cosimo was a decade younger than Leonardo da Vinci and thirteen years older than Michelangelo.  He was keenly aware of Leonardo's ideas about nature, but his training provided an altogether more conservative background.  As a youth he worked on the frescoes decorating the walls of the Sistine Chapel, under the direction of his teacher Cosimo Rosselli.  He thus worked alongside Botticelli, Perugino, and Signorelli.  He was, in short, a painter with a foot in two worlds, and although Vasari places Piero's biography firmly among the "moderns" – between Correggio and Bramante – he went out of his way to emphasize the artist's eccentricities." 

– from biographical notes at the Metropolitan Museum, New York

"Giorgio Vasari wrote two biographies of the Florentine painter Piero de Cosimo: the text published in the second edition of his Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects in 1568 is a much-revised version of the first, printed in 1550.  Both works are profoundly teleological, since they are both based on a misleading notion of artistic progress: the first culminating in the figure of Michelangelo, who mastered all three major arts, and the second ending with the eulogy of the Accademia del Disegno, recently founded (1563) under the political auspices of Duke Cosimo I de' Medici.  . . .  Piero's lives do not fit the theoretical model, and their meaning can be fully appreciated only when they are embedded in a network that connects Vasari's récit of Paolo Uccello's biography with his fictional life of Jacopo Pontormo.  All three were represented as improper intellectual figures deeply absorbed in their creative process, and their behavior allegedly endangered Vasari's efforts to promote a new figure of the artist perfectly integrated into the courtly society of his own time."

– from biographical notes at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC