Early Renaissance

ANDREA DA MURANO (known 1463, Venezia, d. 1512, Castelfranco Veneto)

Biography Italian painter, first documented in Venice in 1463. He began as a collaborator f Bartolomeo Vivarini. His works reveal his careful study of Giovanni Bellini and Andrea Mantegna. His most significant works include the Dead Christ Mourned in the cathedral of Cittadella, Virgin and Child in the Collezione Cini, Venice, and the Triptych now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia (1477-78). They disclose an artist who was familiar with the work of Luca Signorelli. Work- Polyptych c. 1478 Tempera on wood, 152 x 88 cm (centre), 152 x 47 cm (sides), 80 x 199 cm (lunette) Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice ANDREA DEL CASTAGNO (b. 1423, Castagno, d. 1457, Firenze) Biography Andrea del Castagno (originally Andrea di Bartolodi Bargilla), one of the most influential 15th-century Italian Renaissance painters, best known for the emotional power and naturalistic treatment of figures in his work. Little is known of Castagno's early life, and it is also difficult to ascertain the stages of his artistic development owing to the loss of many of his paintings. As a youth, he was precocious. He executed a mural of Cosimo de' Medici's adversaries (rebels hanging by their heels) at the Palazzo del Podestà in Florence, earning him the byname Andreino degli Impiccati ("Little Andrea of the Hanged Men"). It is known that he went to Venice in 1442, and frescoes in San Zaccaria are signed and dated by both him and Francesco da Faenza. His first notable works were a Last Supper and three scenes from the Passion of Christ, all for the former Convent of Sant'Apollonia in Florence, now known as the Cenacolo di Sant'Apollonia and also as the Castagno Museum. These monumental frescoes, revealing the influence of Masaccio's pictorial illusionism and Castagno's own use of scientific perspective, received wide acclaim. In his altarpiece painting of theAssumption of the Virgin for San Miniato fra le Torri in Florence, Castagno's style more closely resembled International Gothic. In 1451 Castagno continued the frescoes at San Egidio begun earlier by Domenico Veneziano. The light tones that Castagno adopted for his outstanding St Julian (1454-55) show Veneziano's influence. In a work for a loggia of the Villa Carducci Pandalfini at Legnaia, Castagno broke with earlier styles and painted a larger-than-life-size series of Famous Men and Women, within a painted frame (now in the Castagno Museum, Florence). In this work, Castagno displayed more than mere craftsmanship; he portrayed movement of body and facial expression, creating dramatic tension. Castagno set the figures in painted architectural niches, thus giving the impression that they are actual sculptural forms. He achieved similar force in his Youthful David (National Gallery, Washington, D.C.), painted on a shield. His last dated work (Florence Cathedral) is an equestrian portrait of Niccolò da Tolentino. Castagno's emotionally expressive realism was strongly influenced by Donatello, and Castagno's work in turn influenced succeeding generations of Florentine and Paduan painters. Work- Crucifixion and Saints 1440-41 Fresco Ospedale Santa Maria Nuova, Florence St John the Baptist 1442 Fresco San Zaccaria, Venice God the Father 1442 Fresco, height of figure 176 cm San Zaccaria, Venice St John the Evangelist 1442 Fresco, height of figure 176 cm San Zaccaria, Venice St Mark 1442 Fresco, height of figure 176 cm San Zaccaria, Venice Dormition of the Virgin 1442-43 Mosaic Basilica di San Marco, Venice Dormition of the Virgin 1448-51 Mosaic Basilica di San Marco, Venice Deposition c. 1444 Stained glass Duomo, Florence Madonna and Child with Saints c. 1445 Fresco, 290 x 212 cm Contini Bonacossi Collection, Florence Last Supper and Stories of Christ's Passion 1447 Fresco, 453 x 975 cm (each fresco) Sant'Apollonia, Florence Last Supper (detail) 1447 Fresco Sant'Apollonia, Florence