DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61668#0047
BIOGRAPHY
23
the different Portate.* This would seem to be 1443,
which if correct would make him eleven years younger
than Antonio.
It is of course possible, as Vasari states, that he
learnt painting in the atelier of Andrea dal Castagno,
but as Andrea died when he was but fourteen years old,
in any case it would not have been his only training.
From the character of his work it seems most likely
that he owed his education entirely to Antonio.
The first documented notice we have of him is of
1460,when, as a boy of seventeen, he assisted Antonio in
painting the lost canvases of the Labours of Hercules
for Lorenzo de’ Medici. The earliest existing work in
which his hand is visible is in the Altarpiece of the
Three Saints, painted with his brother a few years later
for the Chapel of the Cardinal of Portugal, S. Miniato.
In 1470 he held already an independent position as a
Master, receiving the commission from the Mercatanzia
for the panels of the Virtues to decorate their Council
Hall. In 1477 he was competing with Verrocchio for
the Forteguerri Tomb, to be erected in the Cathedral
of Pistoja. Verrochio had, it transpires from the
document recording this competition (Doc. XX. p. 277),
demanded more money from the commissioners than they
were willing to give ; upon which they invited Piero,
* In his Portata to the Catasto of 1457 his father gives his age as
14, which would place the date of his birth in 1443. He himself, in
his Portata of 1480 gives it as 33, which would place it in 1447. As
in the case of Antonio, I have accepted the former, since it is un-
likely that a father would mistake the age of so young a child.
23
the different Portate.* This would seem to be 1443,
which if correct would make him eleven years younger
than Antonio.
It is of course possible, as Vasari states, that he
learnt painting in the atelier of Andrea dal Castagno,
but as Andrea died when he was but fourteen years old,
in any case it would not have been his only training.
From the character of his work it seems most likely
that he owed his education entirely to Antonio.
The first documented notice we have of him is of
1460,when, as a boy of seventeen, he assisted Antonio in
painting the lost canvases of the Labours of Hercules
for Lorenzo de’ Medici. The earliest existing work in
which his hand is visible is in the Altarpiece of the
Three Saints, painted with his brother a few years later
for the Chapel of the Cardinal of Portugal, S. Miniato.
In 1470 he held already an independent position as a
Master, receiving the commission from the Mercatanzia
for the panels of the Virtues to decorate their Council
Hall. In 1477 he was competing with Verrocchio for
the Forteguerri Tomb, to be erected in the Cathedral
of Pistoja. Verrochio had, it transpires from the
document recording this competition (Doc. XX. p. 277),
demanded more money from the commissioners than they
were willing to give ; upon which they invited Piero,
* In his Portata to the Catasto of 1457 his father gives his age as
14, which would place the date of his birth in 1443. He himself, in
his Portata of 1480 gives it as 33, which would place it in 1447. As
in the case of Antonio, I have accepted the former, since it is un-
likely that a father would mistake the age of so young a child.