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Piero di Cosimo

February 16, 2024

Not to be confused with Piero di Cosimo de' Medici.

Piero di Cosimo (2 January 1462[1] – 12 April 1522), also known as Piero di Lorenzo, was an Italian painter of the Renaissance.

Piero di Cosimo
Presumed self-portrait at the right side of his painting Perseus Freeing Andromeda
Born2 January 1462
Florence, Republic of Florence
Died12 April 1522(1522-04-12) (aged 60)
Florence, Republic of Florence
NationalityItalian
EducationCosimo Roselli
Known forPainting
MovementHigh Renaissance
The Death of Procris, c. 1495
Perseus Freeing Andromeda, oil on canvas, 1510 or 1513, Uffizi
Tritons and Nereids (1500), oil on panel, 37 x158 cm, Milano, Altomani collection

He is most famous for the mythological and allegorical subjects he painted in the late Quattrocento; he is said to have abandoned these to return to religious subjects under the influence of Savonarola, the preacher who exercised a huge sway in Florence in the 1490s, and had a similar effect on Botticelli. The High Renaissance style of the new century had little influence on him, and he retained the straightforward realism of his figures, which combines with an often whimsical treatment of his subjects to create the distinctive mood of his works.

Vasari has many stories of his eccentricity, and the mythological subjects have an individual and quirky fascination.[2] He trained under Cosimo Rosselli, whose daughter he married, and assisted him in his Sistine Chapel frescos.

He was also influenced by Early Netherlandish painting, and busy landscapes feature in many works, often forests seen close at hand. Several of his most striking secular works are in the long "landscape" format used for paintings inset into cassone wedding chests or spalliera headboards or panelling. He was apparently famous for designing the temporary decorations for Carnival and other festivities.

Biography edit

 
Young St John the Baptist, 1490s

The son of a goldsmith, Lorenzo di Piero, Piero was born in Florence and apprenticed under the artist Cosimo Rosseli, from whom he derived his popular name and whom he assisted in the painting of the Sistine Chapel in 1481.

In the first phase of his career, Piero was influenced by the Netherlandish naturalism of Hugo van der Goes, whose Portinari Triptych (now at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence) helped to lead the whole of Florentine painting into new channels. From him, most probably, Cosimo acquired the love of landscape and the intimate knowledge of the growth of flowers and of animal life. The manner of Hugo van der Goes is especially apparent in the Adoration of the Shepherds, at the Berlin Museum.

He journeyed to Rome in 1482 with his master, Rosselli. He proved himself a true child of the Renaissance by depicting subjects of Classical mythology in such pictures as Venus, Mars, and Cupid, The Death of Procris, the Perseus and Andromeda series, at the Uffizi, and many others. Inspired to the Vitruvius' account of the evolution of man, Piero's mythical compositions show the bizarre presence of hybrid forms of men and animals, or the man learning to use fire and tools. The multitudes of nudes in these works shows the influence of Luca Signorelli on Piero's art.

During his lifetime, Piero acquired a reputation for eccentricity—a reputation enhanced and exaggerated by later commentators such as Giorgio Vasari, who included a biography of Piero di Cosimo in his Lives of the Artists.[3] Reportedly, he was frightened of thunderstorms, and so pyrophobic that he rarely cooked his food; he lived on a diet of hard-boiled eggs, which he prepared 50 at a time while boiling glue for his artworks.[4][5][6] He also resisted any cleaning of his studio, or trimming of the fruit trees of his orchard; he lived, wrote Vasari, "more like a beast than a man".

If, as Vasari asserts, he spent the last years of his life in gloomy retirement, the change was probably due to preacher Girolamo Savonarola, under whose influence he turned his attention once more to religious art. The death of his master Roselli may also have affected Piero's morose elder years. The Immaculate Conception with Saints, at the Uffizi, and the Holy Family, at Dresden, illustrate the religious fervour to which he was stimulated by Savonarola.

 
PROMULGATIO LEGIS SCRIPTE PER MOISEM – fresco by Cosimo Rosselli

With the exception of the landscape background in Rosselli's fresco of the Sermon on the Mount, in the Sistine Chapel, there is no record of any fresco work from his brush. On the other hand, Piero enjoyed a great reputation as a portrait painter: the most famous of his work is in fact the portrait of a Florentine noblewoman, Simonetta Vespucci, mistress of Giuliano de' Medici. According to Vasari, Piero excelled in designing pageants and triumphal processions for the pleasure-loving youths of Florence, and gives a vivid description of one such procession at the end of the carnival of 1507, which illustrated the triumph of death. Piero di Cosimo exercised considerable influence upon his fellow pupils Albertinelli and Bartolomeo della Porta, and was the master of Andrea del Sarto.

Vasari gave Piero's date of death as 1521, and this date is still repeated by many sources, including the Encyclopædia Britannica.[7] However, contemporary documents reveal that he died of plague on 12 April 1522.[8] He is featured in George Eliot's novel Romola.

Selected works edit

  • Madonna and Child Enthroned with Sts. Peter, John the Baptist, Dominic, and Nicholas of Bari (1481–85) tempera and oil on panel, St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri
 
Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints

Gallery edit

References edit

  1. ^ After much uncertainty, Piero's birth date was identified in the parish records of San Lorenzo by Dennis Geronimus, "The Birth Date, Early Life, and Career of Piero di Cosimo", The Art Bulletin 82.1 (March 2000:164–170); Geronimus was able to rely on the consistency of Lorenzo di Piero d'Antonio's reports of his children's ages at the catasti of 1469 and 1480, and a new database of Florentine baptismal records.
  2. ^ Hartt, 480–481
  3. ^ Fermor, Sharon (1993). Piero di Cosimo: Fiction, Invention, and Fantasia. Reaktion Books. pp. 7–9 and ff. ISBN 9780948462368.
  4. ^ Griswold, William (5 August 2014). "Piero di Cosimo". Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
  5. ^ Fermor, Sharon; Cosimo, Piero Di. (1993). Piero Di Cosimo: Fiction, Invention, and Fantasìa. Reaktion Books. p. 16. ISBN 0-948462-36-1 "He ate only when he was hungry, and later in life reduced himself to living off hard-boiled eggs, which he cooked fifty at a time when boiling the size for his paintings, in order to save fuel."
  6. ^ Blow, Douglas. (2009). In Your Face: Professional Improprieties and the Art of Being Conspicuous in Sixteenth-Century Italy. Stanford University Press. p. 97. ISBN 978-0804762168 "The Tuscan painter Piero di Cosimo (1461–1521), for instance, ate only boiled eggs, cooking them by the bucketload and then consuming them one by one as he worked."
  7. ^ "Piero Di Cosimo". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2006. Retrieved 28 October 2006.
  8. ^ Waldman, Louis Alexander (March 2000). "Fact, Fiction, Hearsay: Notes on Vasari's Life of Piero di Cosimo". The Art Bulletin. 82 (1): 171–9. doi:10.2307/3051370. JSTOR 3051370.
  9. ^ Dennis Geronimus, Piero Di Cosimo: Visions Beautiful and Strange, (Yale University Press), 2006 fig. 122

External links edit

  •   Media related to Piero di Cosimo at Wikimedia Commons
  • Italian Paintings: Florentine School, a collection catalog containing information about di Cosimo and his works (see pages: 174–180).
  • Project Piero di Cosimo

February 16, 2024
piero, cosimo, confused, with, medici, january, 1462, april, 1522, also, known, piero, lorenzo, italian, painter, renaissance, presumed, self, portrait, right, side, painting, perseus, freeing, andromedaborn2, january, 1462florence, republic, florencedied12, a. Not to be confused with Piero di Cosimo de Medici Piero di Cosimo 2 January 1462 1 12 April 1522 also known as Piero di Lorenzo was an Italian painter of the Renaissance Piero di CosimoPresumed self portrait at the right side of his painting Perseus Freeing AndromedaBorn2 January 1462Florence Republic of FlorenceDied12 April 1522 1522 04 12 aged 60 Florence Republic of FlorenceNationalityItalianEducationCosimo RoselliKnown forPaintingMovementHigh RenaissanceThe Death of Procris c 1495Perseus Freeing Andromeda oil on canvas 1510 or 1513 UffiziTritons and Nereids 1500 oil on panel 37 x158 cm Milano Altomani collectionHe is most famous for the mythological and allegorical subjects he painted in the late Quattrocento he is said to have abandoned these to return to religious subjects under the influence of Savonarola the preacher who exercised a huge sway in Florence in the 1490s and had a similar effect on Botticelli The High Renaissance style of the new century had little influence on him and he retained the straightforward realism of his figures which combines with an often whimsical treatment of his subjects to create the distinctive mood of his works Vasari has many stories of his eccentricity and the mythological subjects have an individual and quirky fascination 2 He trained under Cosimo Rosselli whose daughter he married and assisted him in his Sistine Chapel frescos He was also influenced by Early Netherlandish painting and busy landscapes feature in many works often forests seen close at hand Several of his most striking secular works are in the long landscape format used for paintings inset into cassone wedding chests or spalliera headboards or panelling He was apparently famous for designing the temporary decorations for Carnival and other festivities Contents 1 Biography 2 Selected works 3 Gallery 4 References 5 External linksBiography edit nbsp Young St John the Baptist 1490sThe son of a goldsmith Lorenzo di Piero Piero was born in Florence and apprenticed under the artist Cosimo Rosseli from whom he derived his popular name and whom he assisted in the painting of the Sistine Chapel in 1481 In the first phase of his career Piero was influenced by the Netherlandish naturalism of Hugo van der Goes whose Portinari Triptych now at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence helped to lead the whole of Florentine painting into new channels From him most probably Cosimo acquired the love of landscape and the intimate knowledge of the growth of flowers and of animal life The manner of Hugo van der Goes is especially apparent in the Adoration of the Shepherds at the Berlin Museum He journeyed to Rome in 1482 with his master Rosselli He proved himself a true child of the Renaissance by depicting subjects of Classical mythology in such pictures as Venus Mars and Cupid The Death of Procris the Perseus and Andromeda series at the Uffizi and many others Inspired to the Vitruvius account of the evolution of man Piero s mythical compositions show the bizarre presence of hybrid forms of men and animals or the man learning to use fire and tools The multitudes of nudes in these works shows the influence of Luca Signorelli on Piero s art During his lifetime Piero acquired a reputation for eccentricity a reputation enhanced and exaggerated by later commentators such as Giorgio Vasari who included a biography of Piero di Cosimo in his Lives of the Artists 3 Reportedly he was frightened of thunderstorms and so pyrophobic that he rarely cooked his food he lived on a diet of hard boiled eggs which he prepared 50 at a time while boiling glue for his artworks 4 5 6 He also resisted any cleaning of his studio or trimming of the fruit trees of his orchard he lived wrote Vasari more like a beast than a man If as Vasari asserts he spent the last years of his life in gloomy retirement the change was probably due to preacher Girolamo Savonarola under whose influence he turned his attention once more to religious art The death of his master Roselli may also have affected Piero s morose elder years The Immaculate Conception with Saints at the Uffizi and the Holy Family at Dresden illustrate the religious fervour to which he was stimulated by Savonarola nbsp PROMULGATIO LEGIS SCRIPTE PER MOISEM fresco by Cosimo RosselliWith the exception of the landscape background in Rosselli s fresco of the Sermon on the Mount in the Sistine Chapel there is no record of any fresco work from his brush On the other hand Piero enjoyed a great reputation as a portrait painter the most famous of his work is in fact the portrait of a Florentine noblewoman Simonetta Vespucci mistress of Giuliano de Medici According to Vasari Piero excelled in designing pageants and triumphal processions for the pleasure loving youths of Florence and gives a vivid description of one such procession at the end of the carnival of 1507 which illustrated the triumph of death Piero di Cosimo exercised considerable influence upon his fellow pupils Albertinelli and Bartolomeo della Porta and was the master of Andrea del Sarto Vasari gave Piero s date of death as 1521 and this date is still repeated by many sources including the Encyclopaedia Britannica 7 However contemporary documents reveal that he died of plague on 12 April 1522 8 He is featured in George Eliot s novel Romola Selected works editMadonna and Child Enthroned with Sts Peter John the Baptist Dominic and Nicholas of Bari 1481 85 tempera and oil on panel St Louis Art Museum St Louis Missouri nbsp Madonna and Child Enthroned with SaintsPortrait of Simonetta Vespucci c 1480 Oil on panel 57 x 42 cm Musee Conde Chantilly France The Visitation with Saints Nicholas and Anthony 1489 1490 Wood 184 x 189 National Gallery of Art Washington Venus Mars and Cupid 1490 Wood panel 72 x 182 cm Staatliche Museen Berlin Vulcan and Aeolus c 1490 Oil and tempera on canvas National Gallery of Canada Ottawa St Mary Magdalene 1490s Tempera on panel 72 5 x 76 cm Galleria Nazionale d Arte Antica Rome Mystical Marriage of St Catherine of Alexandria 1493 Oil on panel Ospedale degli Innocenti Florence Jason and Queen Hypsipyle with the Women of Lemnos ca 1499 Private Collection 9 Tritons and Nereids Oil on Panel 37x158 cm Milan Altomani collection Allegory 1500 Panel National Gallery of Art Washington The Nativity with The Infant St John c 1500 Oil on panel National Gallery of Art Washington St John the Evangelest 1504 06 Oil on panel Honolulu Museum of Art The Discovery of Honey by Bacchus c 1505 1510 Oil on panel Art Museum Worcester Massachusetts The Finding of Vulcan on Lemnos 1495 1505 Oil and tempera on canvas Wadsworth Atheneum Hartford Connecticut Perseus Freeing Andromeda c 1515 Oil on wood 70 x 123 cm Uffizi Florence Portraits of Giuliano and Francesco Giamberti da Sangallo c 1485 Diptych wood panel 47 5 x 33 5 cm Rijksmuseum Amsterdam The Death of Procris c 1500 Oil on panel 65 x 183 cm National Gallery London Virgin with Child St John the Baptist and an Angel c 1500 1510 Oil on panel diameter 129 cm Sao Paulo Museum of Art Sao Paulo The Adoration of the Christ Child 1505 Oil on wood Galleria Borghese Rome The Forest Fire c 1505 Oil on panel 71 x 202 cm Ashmolean Museum Oxford Immaculate Conception with Saints c 1510 or c 1498 Wood panel 206 x 172 cm Uffizi Florence The Misfortunes of Silenus c 1505 1510 Oil on panel Fogg Art Museum Cambridge Massachusetts The Myth of Prometheus 1515 Oil on panel Alte Pinakothek Munich Two renderings were made with the same title The Munich version depicts a central statue among other activities in the painting The Myth of Prometheus 1515 Oil on panel Musee des Beaux Arts Strasbourg Two renderings were made with the same title The Strasbourg version depicts a statue addressed by Prometheus on the left side of the canvas with other activities depicted elsewhere on the canvas with equal prominence including a dark bird on the right side of the canvas apparently the symbolic of the eternal torment of Prometheus The Building of a Palace 1515 20 oil on panel 83 x 197 cm Ringling Museum of Art Sarasota Florida Madonna and Child with Saints and Angels c 1520 oil on wood panel Philbrook Museum of Art Tulsa OklahomaGallery edit nbsp Musee Conde Chantilly France nbsp St John the Evangelist oil on panel 1504 6 Honolulu Museum of Art nbsp Venus Mars and Cupid c 1505 Gemaldegalerie Berlin nbsp Visitation with Saints Nicolas and Anthony Abbot c 1490 National Gallery of Art Washington DCReferences edit After much uncertainty Piero s birth date was identified in the parish records of San Lorenzo by Dennis Geronimus The Birth Date Early Life and Career of Piero di Cosimo The Art Bulletin 82 1 March 2000 164 170 Geronimus was able to rely on the consistency of Lorenzo di Piero d Antonio s reports of his children s ages at the catasti of 1469 and 1480 and a new database of Florentine baptismal records Hartt 480 481 Fermor Sharon 1993 Piero di Cosimo Fiction Invention and Fantasia Reaktion Books pp 7 9 and ff ISBN 9780948462368 Griswold William 5 August 2014 Piero di Cosimo Grove Art Online Oxford Art Online Oxford University Press Retrieved 24 July 2019 Fermor Sharon Cosimo Piero Di 1993 Piero Di Cosimo Fiction Invention and Fantasia Reaktion Books p 16 ISBN 0 948462 36 1 He ate only when he was hungry and later in life reduced himself to living off hard boiled eggs which he cooked fifty at a time when boiling the size for his paintings in order to save fuel Blow Douglas 2009 In Your Face Professional Improprieties and the Art of Being Conspicuous in Sixteenth Century Italy Stanford University Press p 97 ISBN 978 0804762168 The Tuscan painter Piero di Cosimo 1461 1521 for instance ate only boiled eggs cooking them by the bucketload and then consuming them one by one as he worked Piero Di Cosimo Encyclopaedia Britannica Encyclopaedia Britannica Online 2006 Retrieved 28 October 2006 Waldman Louis Alexander March 2000 Fact Fiction Hearsay Notes on Vasari s Life of Piero di Cosimo The Art Bulletin 82 1 171 9 doi 10 2307 3051370 JSTOR 3051370 Dennis Geronimus Piero Di Cosimo Visions Beautiful and Strange Yale University Press 2006 fig 122 Hartt Frederick History of Italian Renaissance Art 2nd edn 1987 Thames amp Hudson US Harry N Abrams ISBN 0500235104 nbsp This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain Chisholm Hugh ed 1911 Piero di Cosimo Encyclopaedia Britannica 11th ed Cambridge University Press External links edit nbsp Media related to Piero di Cosimo at Wikimedia Commons Italian Paintings Florentine School a collection catalog containing information about di Cosimo and his works see pages 174 180 Project Piero di Cosimo Portals nbsp Painting nbsp Visual arts Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Piero di Cosimo amp oldid 1180428524, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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