Cartwright, Julia: The painters of Florence: from the Thirteenth to the Sixteenth century (London: John Murray, 1910)

XXII

PIERO DI COSIMO
1462-1521
PlERO DI Cosimo is one of those artists who suffered
from temporary neglect and whose rare merits have
only been lately recognised. Many of his works
formerly passed under the names of other masters, but
have recently been restored to him, and now we are
once more able to form a clear idea of his style. The
first notice we have of this gifted but eccentric artist is
in 1480, when his father, Lorenzo Chimenti, himself a
goldsmith-painter, describes his son as a painter earn-
ing no salary, and working in Cosimo Rosselli’s shop.
It was from Cosimo that Piero, who was then eighteen,
derived his name. Rosselli loved him as his own son,
and had good reason, Vasari remarks, to treat him
well, since Piero, being a far better artist than his
master, became indispensable to him, and was em-
ployed on all his important works. Two years after
this, Piero accompanied Cosimo to Rome, and not
only painted the landscapes and many of the portraits
in his frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, but himself exe-
cuted the Destruction of Pharaoh in the Red Sea,
which was supposed to be Rosselli’s work. As
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