|
|
Baldovinetti
was born in Florence to a family of a rich merchant.
In 1448 he was registered as a member of the Guild
of St. Luke: "Alesso di Baldovinetti, dipintore."[1]
He was a follower of the group of scientific realists
and naturalists in art which included Andrea del Castagno,
Paolo Uccello and Domenico Veneziano. Tradition says
that he assisted in the decorations of the church
of S. Egidio, however no records confirm this. These
decoration were carried out during the years 1441—1451
by Domenico Veneziano and in conjunction with Andrea
del Castagno. That he was commissioned to complete
the series at a later date (1460) is certain.
In 1462 Alesso was employed to paint the great fresco
of the Annunciation in the cloister of the Annunziata
basilica. The remains as we see them give evidence
of the artist's power both of imitating natural detail
with minute fidelity and of spacing his figures in
a landscape with a large sense of air and distance;
and they amply verify two separate statements of Vasari
concerning him: that "he delighted in drawing
landscapes from nature exactly as they are, whence
we see in his paintings rivers; bridges, rocks, plants,
fruits, roads, fields, cities, exercise grounds, and
an infinity of other such things," and that he
was an inveterate experimentalist in technical matters.
His favourite method in wall-painting was to lay in
his compositions in fresco and finish them a secco
with a mixture of yolk of egg and liquid varnish.
This, says Vasari, was with the view of protecting
the painting from damp; but in course of time the
parts executed with this vehicle scaled away, so that
the great secret he hoped to have discovered turned
out a failure. In 1463 he furnished a cartoon of the
Nativity, which was executed in tarsia by Giuliano
de Maiano in the sacristy of the cathedral and still
exists. From 1466 date the groups of four Evangelists
and four Fathers of the Church in fresco, together
with the Annunciation on an oblong panel, which still
decorate the Portuguese chapel in the basilica of
San Miniato, and are given in error by Vasari to Piero
Pollaiuolo. A fresco of the risen Christ between angels
inside a Holy Sepulchre in the chapel of the Rucellai
family, also still existing, belongs to 1467.
In 1471 Alesso undertook important works for tile
church of Santa Trìnita on the commission of
Bongianni Gianfigliazzi. First, to paint an altar-piece
of the Virgin and Child with six saints; this was
finished in 1472: next, a series of frescoes from
the Old Testament which was to be completed according
to contract within five years, but actually remained
on hand for fully sixteen. In 1497 the finished series,
which contained many portraits of leading Florentine
citizens, was valued at a thousand gold forms by a
committee consisting of Cosimo Rosselli, Benozzo Gozzoli,
Perugino and Filippino Lippi; only some defaced fragments
of it now remain. Meanwhile Alessio had been much
occupied with other technical pursuits and researches
apart from painting. He was regarded by his contemporaries
as the one craftsman who had rediscovered and fully
understood the long disused art of mosaic, and was
employed accordingly between 1481 and 1483 to repair
the mosaics over the door of the church of S. Miniato,
as well as several of those both within and without
the baptistery of the cathedral. He died at in the
hospital San Paolo, August 29, 1499, and was buried
in San Lorenzo.
One of his pupils was Domenico Ghirlandaio.
|
|
|
