DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.57409#0407
PARRI SPINELLI.
391
PARRI SPINELLI, PAINTER, OF AREZZO.
[born . . . .-WAS LIVING IN 1444.]
The Aretine painter, Parri di Spinello Spinelli,* acquired
the first principles of his art under the discipline of his
father ;f but being taken to Florence by Messer Leonardo
Bruni of Arezzo,]: was there received into the school of Lo-
renzo Ghiberti, where many young men were studying under
the care of that great master. At that time the doors of San
Giovanni were in process of completion, and on the figures
of this work Parri di Spinello was employed, as we have
before said, with many others. While thus occupied, he
contracted an intimacy with Masolino di Panicale, whose
mode of drawing pleased Spinelli so much, that he took pains
to imitate him in many respects, as he did also the manner
of Don Lorenzo degli Angeli in certain others.
The figures of Parri Spinelli are more slender than those
of any painter who preceded him; he also gave them much
greater length, insomuch that where other masters gave the
proportion of ten heads only, Parri gave eleven, and sometimes
even twelve: nor are they in the slightest degree ungraceful
on that account; slight and flexible, they are always bend-
ing either to the right or left, from which circumstance, as it
appeared to him, and as he sometimes said, they derive an
air of life and spirit. This master painted his draperies very
delicately; the folds are rich, and they fall gracefully from
the shoulders of his figures to the feet, with good effect.
Parri worked extremely well in distemper, but in fresco his
colouring is perfect; and he was the first who, in fresco
painting, omitted those greenish tints beneath the carnations,
which were afterwards painted over with flesh colours in
chiaro-scuro, after the manner of paintings in water colours,
as had been the custom with Giotto and the other old mas-
ters. Parri, on the contrary, used body colours, which he
applied with the nicest caution, as his judgment dictated their
places; the lights, that is to say, on the points most in relief;
the middle tints in their due positions; and the darks towards
the outline. By this mode of treatment his works were pro-
* Gasparri was the proper name of this artist.
t Spinello Aretino. See his life, ante, p. 255.
t The well-known historian and secretary of the Florentine republic.
391
PARRI SPINELLI, PAINTER, OF AREZZO.
[born . . . .-WAS LIVING IN 1444.]
The Aretine painter, Parri di Spinello Spinelli,* acquired
the first principles of his art under the discipline of his
father ;f but being taken to Florence by Messer Leonardo
Bruni of Arezzo,]: was there received into the school of Lo-
renzo Ghiberti, where many young men were studying under
the care of that great master. At that time the doors of San
Giovanni were in process of completion, and on the figures
of this work Parri di Spinello was employed, as we have
before said, with many others. While thus occupied, he
contracted an intimacy with Masolino di Panicale, whose
mode of drawing pleased Spinelli so much, that he took pains
to imitate him in many respects, as he did also the manner
of Don Lorenzo degli Angeli in certain others.
The figures of Parri Spinelli are more slender than those
of any painter who preceded him; he also gave them much
greater length, insomuch that where other masters gave the
proportion of ten heads only, Parri gave eleven, and sometimes
even twelve: nor are they in the slightest degree ungraceful
on that account; slight and flexible, they are always bend-
ing either to the right or left, from which circumstance, as it
appeared to him, and as he sometimes said, they derive an
air of life and spirit. This master painted his draperies very
delicately; the folds are rich, and they fall gracefully from
the shoulders of his figures to the feet, with good effect.
Parri worked extremely well in distemper, but in fresco his
colouring is perfect; and he was the first who, in fresco
painting, omitted those greenish tints beneath the carnations,
which were afterwards painted over with flesh colours in
chiaro-scuro, after the manner of paintings in water colours,
as had been the custom with Giotto and the other old mas-
ters. Parri, on the contrary, used body colours, which he
applied with the nicest caution, as his judgment dictated their
places; the lights, that is to say, on the points most in relief;
the middle tints in their due positions; and the darks towards
the outline. By this mode of treatment his works were pro-
* Gasparri was the proper name of this artist.
t Spinello Aretino. See his life, ante, p. 255.
t The well-known historian and secretary of the Florentine republic.