Cecco di Pietro was an Italian painter of the Pisan School. While his date of birth cannot be confirmed, there is some mention of a Cecco Pierri working with the painter Paolo di Lazzarino in 1350. If this was a reference to di Pietro, then his date of birth can be placed around 1330. [1]
He was active starting from around 1370 and died sometime before 1402. Cecco is seen as an important figure in Trecento art because of his development of a style that incorporated elements of Pisan painting along with those of the Sienese School.
Early documents indicate that some of Cecco di Pietro's first work as an artist was restoring frescoes. He is first mentioned in notices from around 1370 as having worked at the Campo Santo with five other painters working on restoring frescoes in the area. He is next mentioned in notices from 1372 concerning the restoration of the Story of Job fresco in the Campo Santo with Francesco Volterra. [2] Records regarding his pay from the time show that it was a small sum of money when compared with other artists of the day, indicating that he was still inexperienced and learning the craft of the Pisan school from Volterra.
Following the restoration of the Story of Job, there is another notice of Cecco di Pietro being hired in 1379 to restore the Inferno from a trio of frescoes by Buonamico Buffalmacco which were also located in the Campo Santo and were apparently damaged by some untrained apprentices in a previous restoration attempt. Of the restoration of the Inferno, most scholars only attribute the 2nd circle of Hell and two figures to the side of the Devil as the portions restored by Cecco, with the other restoration work carried out by a separate unknown artist.
One of his masterpiece is the Madonna and Child, signed and dated 1378, now at the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen in Denmark, was the central compartment of Saint Rainerius polyptych made for the church of San Francesco in Pisa.
Cecco continued to receive a number of local commissions painting many altarpieces. One such altarpiece is the Polyptych of Agnano, executed between 1386–1395 for the church and convent at Agnano, and is considered one of Cecco's most important pieces. He continued to work in the fresco style until his death around 1402 [3]
During his career Cecco worked in themes common to other artists of the Trecento period. Much of the artwork produced by Cecco was of the Virgin and Child such as The Virgin and Child With Donors in 1386, which was part of a polyptych that has since been separated and its various pieces are located in different museums around the world. In documents from 1380 we see that Cecco was referred to as anziano or “elder” in Italian. This classifies him as a representative of the “San Simoncino di Porta” parish that he belonged to in Pisa.
Initial evaluations by early art historians looked on Cecco di Pietro's work as not being historically or technically significant. [4] Additionally, some early art historians did not critically consider the Pisan School as a whole. [5] Later Cecco's work has been reevaluated, and is now seen as one of the Pisan masters with his own unique style. His style evolved over his career, starting first as an example of the Pisan School of painting and eventually developing into a hybrid of Sienese and Pisan styles. [1] Cecco's greatest influence from the Pisan school was in his use of punches, a decoration trend where the artist would punch shapes and patterns out of metal to be incorporated in the painting that was very popular in Tuscany during the Trecento. [6] [7]
His earlier work such as The Madonna and Child with Donors is more naturalistic when compared with his later works, where his figures take on a more elongated and ethereal appearance similar to the Sienese style at the time. This is seen most prominently in the depiction of the head of the child. [8] Another work that clearly displays this shift towards more ethereal figures is the recently restored Virgin and Child Playing with a Gold Finch.. In this painting the Madonna's face and neck have taken on a longer more drawn appearance, and the fingers of the Madonna are long and slender.
It is unknown what exactly brought about this shift in Cecco's style but there is some work that suggests that Sienese painter Luca di Tommè may have been an influence. Whether through direct mentorship or Cecco's admiration of his work, there are many similarities between works of Tommè and later works of Cecco. These similarities can be seen between Cecco's Polpytch of the Crucifixion from 1386 and a similar scene by di Tomme from 1366. [2] Cecco created many works in this hybrid style which presents an example into the shifting styles of painters at the start of the Italian Renaissance.
Frescoes
Simone Martini was an Italian painter born in Siena. He was a major figure in the development of early Italian painting and greatly influenced the development of the International Gothic style.
Pietro Lorenzetti or Pietro Laurati was an Italian painter, active between c. 1306 and 1345. Together with his younger brother Ambrogio, he introduced naturalism into Sienese art. In their artistry and experiments with three-dimensional and spatial arrangements, the brothers foreshadowed the art of the Renaissance.
For the village near Livorno, see Sassetta, Tuscany
Ridolfo di Domenico Bigordi, better known as Ridolfo Ghirlandaio was an Italian Renaissance painter active mainly in Florence. He was the son of Domenico Ghirlandaio.
Taddeo di Bartolo, also known as Taddeo Bartoli, was an Italian painter of the Sienese School during the early Renaissance. He is among the artists profiled in Vasari's biographies of artists or Vite. Vasari claims he is the uncle of Domenico di Bartolo.
Antoniazzo Romano, born Antonio di Benedetto Aquilo degli Aquili was an Italian Early Renaissance painter, the leading figure of the Roman school during the latter part of the 15th century. He "made a speciality of repainting or interpreting older images, or generating new cult images with an archaic flavor", in particular by very often using the gold ground style, which was unusual by this period.
Sano di Pietro or Ansano di Pietro di Mencio (1405–1481) was an Italian painter of the Sienese school of painting. He was active for about half a century during the Quattrocento period, and his contemporaries included Giovanni di Paolo and Sassetta.
Lorenzo di Niccolò or Lorenzo di Niccolò di Martino was an Italian painter who was active in Florence from 1391 to 1412. This early Renaissance artist worked in the Trecento style, and his work maintains influences of the Gothic style, marking a transitional period between the Gothic sensibilities of the Middle Ages while simultaneously beginning to draw on the Classical. Lorenzo's works were usually religious scenes in tempera with gold backgrounds.
Jacopo di Cione was an Italian Gothic period painter in the Republic of Florence.
Bartolo di Fredi, also called Bartolo Battiloro, was an Italian painter, born in Siena, classified as a member of the Sienese School.
Lippo Memmi was an Italian painter from Siena. He was the foremost follower of Simone Martini, who was his brother-in-law.
Niccolò di Pietro Gerini was an Italian painter of the late Gothic period, active mainly in his native Florence although he also carried out commissions in Pisa and Prato. He was not an innovative painter but relied on traditional compositions in which he placed his figures in a stiff and dramatic movement.
Santa Maria della Scala is located in Siena, Italy. Now a museum, it was once an important civic hospital dedicated to caring for abandoned children, the poor, the sick, and pilgrims. Revenues were earned partially from bequests and donations from the citizens of Siena, particularly the wealthy. The head of the hospital was the rector who managed the lay brothers responsible for its operation.
Biagio d’Antonio Tucci was an Italian Renaissance painter active in Florence, Faenza and Rome.
The Musée du Petit Palais is a museum and art gallery in Avignon, southern France. It opened in 1976 and has an exceptional collection of Renaissance paintings of the Avignon school as well as from Italy, which reunites many "primitives" from the collection of Giampietro Campana. It is housed in a 14th-century building at the north side of the square overlooked by the Palais des Papes. The building, built in the early 14th century as the residence of the bishops of Avignon, was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the historic center of Avignon in 1995.
Ottaviano Nelli (1375–1444?) was an Italian painter of the early Quattrocento. Nelli primarily painted frescoes, but also panel paintings. He had several pupils and two painters were influenced by him.
The San Pietro Polyptych is a polyptych by Italian Renaissance master Perugino, painted around 1496–1500. The panels are now in different locations: the lunette and the central panel, depicting the Ascension of Christ, are in the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon, France.
Pietro di Domenico da Montepulciano was an Italian painter active in the Marche region.
Meo di Pero, also called Meo di Piero was an Italian painter active in Siena in a Gothic style. He worked in the studio of Cristoforo di Bindoccio. All the latter paintings are generally co-attributed to Meo, since no independent work is known.