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Piero di Cosimo (also known as Piero di Lorenzo) (January 2, 1462 – 1521) was an Italian
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
 Renaissance painter
Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . In art, the term describes both the act and the result, which is called a painting....
.

son of a goldsmith, Piero was born in Florence
Florence

Florence is the Capital city of the Italy Regions of Italy of Tuscany and of the provinces of Italy Province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany and has a population of 364,779 ....
 and apprenticed under the artist Cosimo Rosseli, from whom he derived his popular name and whom he assisted in the painting of the Sistine Chapel
Sistine Chapel

Sistine Chapel is the best-known chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope in Vatican City. Its fame rests on its architecture, evocative of Solomon's Temple of the Old Testament and on its decoration which has been frescoed throughout by the greatest Renaissance artists including Michelangelo, Raphael, Bernini, and...
 in 1481.

In the first phase of his career, Piero was influenced by the Netherlandish naturalism of Hugo van der Goes
Hugo van der Goes

Hugo van der Goes was a Flemish painter. He was, along with Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Hans Memling and Gerard David, one of the most important of the Early Netherlandish Painting....
, whose Portinari Triptych
Portinari Triptych

The Portinari Triptych is an oil on wood triptych painting by the Flanders painter Hugo van der Goes representing the Adoration of the shepherds....
 (now at the Spedale of Santa Maria Novella in Florence) helped to lead the whole of Florentine painting into new channels.






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Piero Di Cosimo Simonetta
Piero di Cosimo (also known as Piero di Lorenzo) (January 2, 1462 – 1521) was an Italian
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
 Renaissance painter
Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . In art, the term describes both the act and the result, which is called a painting....
.

Biography

The son of a goldsmith, Piero was born in Florence
Florence

Florence is the Capital city of the Italy Regions of Italy of Tuscany and of the provinces of Italy Province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany and has a population of 364,779 ....
 and apprenticed under the artist Cosimo Rosseli, from whom he derived his popular name and whom he assisted in the painting of the Sistine Chapel
Sistine Chapel

Sistine Chapel is the best-known chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope in Vatican City. Its fame rests on its architecture, evocative of Solomon's Temple of the Old Testament and on its decoration which has been frescoed throughout by the greatest Renaissance artists including Michelangelo, Raphael, Bernini, and...
 in 1481.

In the first phase of his career, Piero was influenced by the Netherlandish naturalism of Hugo van der Goes
Hugo van der Goes

Hugo van der Goes was a Flemish painter. He was, along with Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Hans Memling and Gerard David, one of the most important of the Early Netherlandish Painting....
, whose Portinari Triptych
Portinari Triptych

The Portinari Triptych is an oil on wood triptych painting by the Flanders painter Hugo van der Goes representing the Adoration of the shepherds....
 (now at the Spedale of Santa Maria Novella in Florence) helped to lead the whole of Florentine painting into new channels. From him, most probably, Cosimo acquired the love of landscape and the intimate knowledge of the growth of flowers and of animal life. The manner of Hugo van der Goes is especially apparent in the Adoration of the Shepherds, at the Berlin Museum.

He journeyed to Rome in 1482 with his master, Rosselli. He proves himself a true child of the Renaissance
Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe....
 by depicting subjects of Classical mythology in such pictures as the Venus, Mars, and Cupid, The Death of Procris, the Perseus and Andromeda series, at the Uffizi, and many others. Inspired to the Vitruvius'
Vitruvius

File:Vitruvius.jpgMarcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Ancient Rome writer, architect and engineer , active in the 1st century BC. By his own description Vitruvius served as a Ballista , the third class of arms in the military offices....
 account of the evolution of man, Piero's mythical compositions show the bizarre presence of hybrid forms of men and animals, or the man learning to use fire and tools. The multitudes of nudes in these works shows the influence of Luca Signorelli
Luca Signorelli

Luca Signorelli was an Italian Renaissance Painting who was noted in particular for his ability as a draughtsman and his use of foreshortening....
 on Piero's art.

During his lifetime, Cosimo acquired a reputation for eccentricity—a reputation enhanced and exaggerated by later commentators. Reportedly, he was frightened of thunderstorms, and so pyrophobic that he rarely cooked his food; he lived largely on hard-boiled eggs, which he prepared 50 at a time while boiling glue for his artworks. He also resisted any cleaning of his studio, or trimming of the fruit trees of his orchard; he lived, wrote Vasari, "more like a beast than a man."

If, as Vasari asserts, he spent the last years of his life in gloomy retirement, the change was probably due to Savonarola
Girolamo Savonarola

Girolamo Savonarola , was an Italian Dominican Order priest and leader of Florence from 1494 until his execution in 1498. He was known for his book burning, destruction of what he considered immoral art, and hostility to the Renaissance....
, under whose influence he turned his attention once more to religious art. The death of his master Roselli may also have had an impact on Piero's morose elder years. The Immaculate Conception with Saints, at the Uffizi
Uffizi

The Uffizi Gallery , one of the oldest and most famous art museums in the world, is housed in the Palazzo degli Uffizi, a palazzo in Florence, Italy, Italy....
, and the Holy Family, at Dresden
Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Germany Federal Free state of Saxony. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon triangle metropolitan area....
, best illustrate the religious fervour to which he was stimulated by the stern preacher.

With the exception of the landscape background in Rosselli's fresco of the Sermon on the Mount, in the Sistine Chapel, we have no record of any fresco work from his brush. On the other hand, Piero enjoyed a great reputation as a portrait painter: the most famous of his work is in fact the portrait of a Florentine
Florence

Florence is the Capital city of the Italy Regions of Italy of Tuscany and of the provinces of Italy Province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany and has a population of 364,779 ....
 noblewoman, Simonetta Vespucci
Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci (Piero di Cosimo)

The Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci is a painting by the Italy Renaissance painter Piero di Cosimo, c. 1480, which portrays her as Cleopatra with an asp around her neck....
, mistress of Giuliano de' Medici
Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici

Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici was an Italian nobleman, one of three sons of Lorenzo de' Medici....
. According to Vasari
Giorgio Vasari

Giorgio Vasari was an Italy Painting and architect, who is today famous for his biography of Italian artists, considered the ideological foundation of art history writing....
 Piero excelled in designing pageants and triumphal processions for the pleasure-loving youths of Florence, and gives a vivid description of one such procession at the end of the carnival of 1507, which illustrated the triumph of death. Piero di Cosimo exercised considerable influence upon his fellow pupils Albertinelli and Bartolomeo della Porta, and was the master of Andrea del Sarto
Andrea del Sarto

Andrea del Sarto was an Italy painter from Florence, whose career flourished during the High Renaissance and early-Mannerism. Though highly regarded by his contemporaries as an artist "senza errori" , he is overshadowed now by equally talented contemporaries like Raphael....
.

Giorgio Vasari
Giorgio Vasari

Giorgio Vasari was an Italy Painting and architect, who is today famous for his biography of Italian artists, considered the ideological foundation of art history writing....
 includes a biography of Piero di Cosimo in his Lives of the Artists.

Vasari gave Piero's date of death as 1521, and this date is still repeated by many sources, including the Encyclopedia Britannica. However, contemporary documents reveal that he died of plague on April 12, 1522.

Selected works

  • Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci
    Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci (Piero di Cosimo)

    The Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci is a painting by the Italy Renaissance painter Piero di Cosimo, c. 1480, which portrays her as Cleopatra with an asp around her neck....
     (c. 1480) Oil on panel, 57 x 42 cm, Musée Condé, Chantilly, France
  • The Visitation with Saints Nicholas and Anthony (1489-1490) Wood, 184 x 189, National Gallery of Art
    National Gallery of Art

    The National Gallery of Art is a national art museum, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The museum was established in 1938 by the United States Congress, with funds for construction and a substantial art collection donated by Andrew W....
    , Washington
  • Venus, Mars, and Cupid (1490) Wood panel, 72 x 182 cm, Staatliche Museen, Berlin
  • St. Mary Magdalene (1490s) Tempera on panel, 72,5 x 76 cm, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica
    Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica

    The Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, or National Gallery of Ancient Art, is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, located on two sites: the Palazzo Barberini and the Palazzo Corsini....
    , Rome
  • Mystical Marriage of St. Catherine of Alexandria (1493) Oil on panel, Ospedale degli Innocenti
    Ospedale degli Innocenti

    The Ospedale degli Innocenti , was a children's orphanage in Florence, designed by Filippo Brunelleschi, who received the commission in 1419. It is regarded as a notable example of early Italian Renaissance architecture....
    , Florence
  • Jason and Queen Hypsipyle with the Women of Lemnos (ca 1499) Private Collection
  • Allegory (1500) Panel, National Gallery of Art, Washington
  • St. John the Evangelest (1504-1506) oil on panel, Honolulu Academy of Arts
    Honolulu Academy of Arts

    The Honolulu Academy of Arts was chartered in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke , who desired to share her love for the arts with the children of Honolulu and Hawaii....
  • The Discovery of Honey (c. 1505-1510) Oil on panel, Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts
  • Vulcan and Aeolus (c. 1495-1500) Oil and tempera on canvas, National Gallery of Canada
    National Gallery of Canada

    The National Gallery of Canada , located in the capital city Ottawa, Ontario, is one of Canada's premier art galleries. The Gallery is housed in a glass and granite building on Sussex Drive with a notable view of the Canadian Parliament buildings on Parliament Hill....
    , Ottawa
  • The Finding of Vulcan on Lemnos (1495-1505) Oil and tempera on canvas, Wadsworth Atheneum
    Wadsworth Atheneum

    The Wadsworth Atheneum is the oldest public art museum in the United States, with significant holdings of French and American Impressionist paintings, Hudson River School landscapes, modernist masterpieces and contemporary works, as well as extensive holdings in early American furniture and decorative arts....
    , Hartford, Connecticut
  • Perseus Frees Andromeda c. 1515, Oil on wood, 70 x 123 cm, Uffizi
    Uffizi

    The Uffizi Gallery , one of the oldest and most famous art museums in the world, is housed in the Palazzo degli Uffizi, a palazzo in Florence, Italy, Italy....
    , Florence
  • Giuliano da San Gallo (c. 1500) Wood panel, 47,5 x 33,5 cm, Rijksmuseum
    Rijksmuseum

    The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam or Rijksmuseum is a Netherlands national museum in Amsterdam, located on the Museumplein. The museum is dedicated to arts, crafts, and history....
    , Amsterdam
  • The Death of Procris (c. 1500) Oil on panel, 65 x 183 cm, National Gallery
    National Gallery, London

    The National Gallery in London, founded in 1824, houses a rich collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900 in its home on Trafalgar Square....
    , London
  • Virgin with Child, St. John the Baptist and an Angel (c. 1500-1510) Oil on panel, diameter 129 cm, São Paulo Museum of Art, São Paulo
  • The Adoration of the Christ Child (1505) Oil on wood, Galleria Borghese
    Galleria Borghese

    The Borghese Gallery in Rome is an art gallery housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana, a building that was from the first integral with its gardens, nowadays considered quite separately by tourists as the Villa Borghese gardens....
    , Rome
  • Immaculate Conception with Saints (c. 1505) Wood panel, 206 x 172 cm, Uffizi
    Uffizi

    The Uffizi Gallery , one of the oldest and most famous art museums in the world, is housed in the Palazzo degli Uffizi, a palazzo in Florence, Italy, Italy....
    , Florence
  • The Misfortunes of Silenus (c.1505-1510) Oil on panel, Fogg Art Museum
    Fogg Art Museum

    The Fogg Art Museum is the oldest of Harvard University's art museums. It covers the history of western art from the Middle Ages to the present....
    , Cambridge, Massachusetts
  • The Myth of Prometheus
    The Myth of Prometheus (Piero di Cosimo)

    The Myth of Prometheus is a series of five panels painted by Piero di Cosimo.Prometheus in Greek mythology is the son of Iapetus , a Titan ....
     (1515) Oil on panel, Alte Pinakothek
    Alte Pinakothek

    The Alte Pinakothek is an art museum situated in the Kunstareal in Munich, Germany. It is one of the oldest galleries of the world housing one of the most famous art museums for the Old Master....
    , Munich and Musée des Beaux-Arts
    Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg

    The Mus?e des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg is the old masters paintings collection of the city of Strasbourg, located in the Alsace region of France....
    , Strasbourg
  • The Building of a Palace (1515-1520) oil on panel, 83 x 197 cm, Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida
  • Madonna and Child with Saints and Angels (c.1520) oil on wood panel, Philbrook Museum of Art
    Philbrook Museum of Art

    The Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Oklahoma is an art museum and former home of Oklahoma petroleum pioneer Waite Phillips and his wife Genevieve Phillips....
    , Tulsa, Oklahoma