_Francesco Pesellino_ (Florentine: 1422-1457).
This accomplished master was called Pesellino to distinguish
him from his grandfather Pesello, by whom he was brought up. He
is "entitled to one of the highest places in the ranks of the
Florentine School of the fifteenth century. His compositions
are distinguished by their lively grace, and the beautiful
and truthful expressions of the persons portrayed" (Kugler).
In beauty of colour and dignity of design the work before us
is his masterpiece. He was a pupil of Fra Filippo Lippi, and
subsequently opened a workshop in Florence in partnership
with a certain Piero di Lorenzo. He died at the early age of
thirty-five, leaving a widow and several children in penury.
His works are very rare. Two compartments of a predella by
him are in the Accademia at Florence, a fourth being in the
Louvre. The collection of Morelli (now in the Public Gallery of
Bergamo) contains three charming little pictures by him, which
strongly recall the style of Fra Filippo (Morelli's account of
the painter is in his _Roman Galleries_, pp. 253-58). "In the
Torrigiani Palace at Florence are two remarkable panels from
_cassoni_, there ascribed to Gozzoli, but by modern criticism
more justly to Pesellino; they bear out Vasari's remark as to
this painter's skill in delineating animals" (Burton).
This picture is perhaps the finest version extant of the conventional
Italian representation of the mystery of the Trinity. The Son on a
crucifix is supported by the Father, whilst the Holy Spirit in the
form of a dove hovers over the head of the Son. The head of the First
Person of the Trinity is a very majestic conception. "In this face,
so full of beauty and power, of intensity and calm, as well as the
careful modelling of the pathetic figure of Christ upon the cross,
Pesellino touches heights which Lippi could not reach; but in the
charming cherubim and seraphim with which the severity of the subject
is softened and decorated, and in the beauty of the colour (though
that has suffered much) we may recognise the influence of his master.
We have only to compare this picture with the representations of
the same subject by Landini (580_a_) and Orcagna (570) to show how
the power to render the most august subjects had been increased by
progress in technical accomplishment and the liberation of the artist's
imagination, even when the elements and arrangements of the composition
remained virtually unchanged from the traditional type" (Monkhouse, _In
the National Gallery_, p. 62). The picture is referred to by Vasari:
"At Pistoja is a work by Pesello, representing the Trinity, with
figures of San Zeno and San Jacopo" (ii. 115). On the suppression of
the religious congregation to whom the church of the Holy Trinity at
Pistoja belonged, the picture was sold, and passed into the collection
of Mr. Young Ottley. The side panels referred to by Vasari are still in
private collections.