The author of this charming panel-painting derives his name from his
principal work, a large altarpiece still preserved in the little Tuscan
town of San Miniato dei Tedeschi. We do not know the artist’s real name
nor anything of his life save that his work, of which some eight or nine
examples are recorded, shows the influence of the great Florentine master,
Fra Filippo Lippi, and of another anonymous painter, the so-called
Companion of Pesellino. The painting in our collection dates about 1480.
We note in this picture the plastic quality which distinguishes the work
of the Florentine artists from that of other schools. This love of form
is an expression of the same temperament which enabled Florence to produce
the greatest sculptors of the Renaissance.
[Portrait of an Ecclesiastic. Giovanni Battista Moroni, ca. 1520-1578.]
Portrait of an Ecclesiastic. Giovanni Battista Moroni, ca. 1520-1578.
A contmplative, dignified spirit is admirably expressed in this beautiful
portrait, which goes to prove that Moroni at his best is entitled to a
place among the great Italian painters of the Renaissance. Moroni spent
most of his life in the little North Italian town of Bergamo, where he
lacked the stimulating competition that occurred in larger centers. At
times, his work, mostly in the field of portraiture, is commonplace, but
in such paintings as the celebrated Tailor, in the National Gallery at
London, or our own Ecclesiastic, we find an unusual power of perception
combined with the “measure, distinction, and clearness” which were the
Hellenistic ideals of his generation.
[Madonna and Child. Giampietrino, fl. first half of XVI Century]