X
ALESSO BALDOVINETTI
1427-1499
Domenico Veneziano's most illustrious scholar was the great Umbrian artist Piero dei Franceschi, who, both in his types and landscapes, shows close affinity to his master. But he also numbered among his followers the Florentine Alesso Baldovinetti, who, as the teacher of Ghirlandajo, of the Pollaiuoli brothers and Andrea Verrocchio, exerted considerable influence on the next generation of artists, and occupies an important place in art history. Alessio was born on the 14th of October 1427, and early gave up his father's trade to study painting in the shop of Domenico Veneziano. In 1448, he matriculated in the Painters' Guild, and about the same time was employed to paint three panels in the presses for the altar-plate of the Medici Chapel in the Annunziata, which Fra Angelico had left unfinished when he went to Rome. These little subjects, representing the Baptism, Transfiguration and Marriage in Cana, are marked by the same refined naturalism that we find in Domenico Veneziano's works, and show the same technical methods and careful accurate observation.
A curious book of Ricordi, which has been preserved in the Archives of S. Maria Nuova, gives an account
137
