DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68073#0057
FLORENTINE
3i
this picture (painted on a panel 58X x 45% inches), which came from
the Collection of Lord Wemyss at Gosford House, Longniddry, Had-
dingtonshire, Scotland, Berenson says:
“The decorative effect is so strong and so enchanting that like the
rest of Masolino’s art it scarcely finds precedence in Florence or even
in Italy. The suavity, the grace, the splendor, although paralleled
in Gentile da Fabriano and in Sassetta, would seem inspired rather by
the ecstatic mood of Parisian painting toward 1400 with its figures of
angelic candor and skies of heavenly radiance than by Tuscan models.”
Masolino, the son of a house painter, was born in Panicale in 1383.
His real name was Tommaso di Cristoforo di Fino, and he was fa-
miliarly called Masolino da Panicale. According to Vasari he was
a pupil of “Stamina” and worked under Ghiberti. He was admitted
into the Florentine Guild of Painters in 1423. In that year he was
commissioned to paint the frescoes in the new chapel of the Carmine,
built by Felice Brancacci, and he took for his assistant, Masaccio,
who went on with the work when Masolino was sent to Hungary in
1425 to decorate a church at Stuhlweissenburg.
When Masolino returned to Florence—after several years—he
found that great changes had taken place in art, for the painters had
been busy with the new problems of perspective and light and shade
and the substitution of Classic for Gothic architecture and decora-
tion. Masolino availed himself of the new ideas, but could not quite
forget his Giottesque traditions. He painted frescoes in Rome,
Naples, and Lombardy.
the Moors in 1410, had for its badge ‘pots filled with white lilies interlaced with griffins, to
which was pendent a medal having thereon an image of the Virgin Mary.’ In Italy, neither
the vase of lilies nor the stalk was considered essential in representations of the Annunciation,
although they are of frequent occurrence. Certain of the Florentine artists, notably Fra Filippo
Lippi, represented both. Ghirlandaio, in his Annunciation at San Gimigniano, placed a vase
beside the Virgin’s desk and combined other flowers—roses, daisies, and jasmine—with the
lilies. The Angel bears the lily-stalk.
“It is interesting to note that while in the majority of Fourteenth- and Fifteenth-Century
Annunciations the Archangel Gabriel was represented bearing a lily, the Sienese painters sel-
dom used this flower, preferring the olive-branch, always a favorite symbol with them. In
the Annunciation it referred to the Christ Child as the bringer of peace on earth. One inter-
pretation of the avoidance of the use of the lily by Sienese artists is that it was due to the hatred
of Siena for Florence, the lily being the flower of Florence.”—Mediceval and Renaissance Paint'
ings (Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 1927).
3i
this picture (painted on a panel 58X x 45% inches), which came from
the Collection of Lord Wemyss at Gosford House, Longniddry, Had-
dingtonshire, Scotland, Berenson says:
“The decorative effect is so strong and so enchanting that like the
rest of Masolino’s art it scarcely finds precedence in Florence or even
in Italy. The suavity, the grace, the splendor, although paralleled
in Gentile da Fabriano and in Sassetta, would seem inspired rather by
the ecstatic mood of Parisian painting toward 1400 with its figures of
angelic candor and skies of heavenly radiance than by Tuscan models.”
Masolino, the son of a house painter, was born in Panicale in 1383.
His real name was Tommaso di Cristoforo di Fino, and he was fa-
miliarly called Masolino da Panicale. According to Vasari he was
a pupil of “Stamina” and worked under Ghiberti. He was admitted
into the Florentine Guild of Painters in 1423. In that year he was
commissioned to paint the frescoes in the new chapel of the Carmine,
built by Felice Brancacci, and he took for his assistant, Masaccio,
who went on with the work when Masolino was sent to Hungary in
1425 to decorate a church at Stuhlweissenburg.
When Masolino returned to Florence—after several years—he
found that great changes had taken place in art, for the painters had
been busy with the new problems of perspective and light and shade
and the substitution of Classic for Gothic architecture and decora-
tion. Masolino availed himself of the new ideas, but could not quite
forget his Giottesque traditions. He painted frescoes in Rome,
Naples, and Lombardy.
the Moors in 1410, had for its badge ‘pots filled with white lilies interlaced with griffins, to
which was pendent a medal having thereon an image of the Virgin Mary.’ In Italy, neither
the vase of lilies nor the stalk was considered essential in representations of the Annunciation,
although they are of frequent occurrence. Certain of the Florentine artists, notably Fra Filippo
Lippi, represented both. Ghirlandaio, in his Annunciation at San Gimigniano, placed a vase
beside the Virgin’s desk and combined other flowers—roses, daisies, and jasmine—with the
lilies. The Angel bears the lily-stalk.
“It is interesting to note that while in the majority of Fourteenth- and Fifteenth-Century
Annunciations the Archangel Gabriel was represented bearing a lily, the Sienese painters sel-
dom used this flower, preferring the olive-branch, always a favorite symbol with them. In
the Annunciation it referred to the Christ Child as the bringer of peace on earth. One inter-
pretation of the avoidance of the use of the lily by Sienese artists is that it was due to the hatred
of Siena for Florence, the lily being the flower of Florence.”—Mediceval and Renaissance Paint'
ings (Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 1927).