XXII
PIERO DI COSIMO
1462-1521
Piero di Cosimo is one of those artists who suffered from temporary neglect and whose rare merits have only been lately recognised. Many of his works formerly passed under the names of other masters, but have recently been restored to him, and now we are once more able to form a clear idea of his style. The first notice we have of this gifted but eccentric artist is in 1480, when his father, Lorenzo Chimenti, himself a goldsmith-painter, describes his son as a painter earning no salary, and working in Cosimo Rosselli's shop. It was from Cosimo that Piero, who was then eighteen, derived his name. Rosselli loved him as his own son, and had good reason, Vasari remarks, to treat him well, since Piero, being a far better artist than his master, became indispensable to him, and was employed on all his important works. Two years after this, Piero accompanied Cosimo to Rome, and not only painted the landscapes and many of the portraits in his frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, but himself executed the Destruction of Pharaoh in the Red Sea, which was supposed to be Rosselli's work. As 278
