Niccolo di Piero drew well, as may be seen in our book, where there is the figure of an Evangelist by his hand, with three heads of horses, admirably drawn.[1]
THE FLORENTINE PAINTER, DELLO.
[born towards the end of the fourteenth centura.—
was living in 1455.]
Although the Florentine Dello[2] was called a painter only while he lived, and has been so considered since his death, he was, nevertheless, attached to the art of sculpture also,— nay, his first works were in this branch of art, seeing that he worked in terra-cotta long before he began to paint: the Coronation of Our Lady, which is represented in terra-cotta over the door of the church of Santa Maria Nuova, being from his hand.[3] The Twelve Apostles, within the church, are also by him,[4] as is the group in the church of the Servites, which represents the dead body of Christ, laid in the lap of the Virgin.[5] But Dello, beside that he was somewhat capricious, perceived that he gained but little by working in
- ↑ Gaye, Carteggio Inedito fyc. vol. i, p. 82, et seq. gives a letter from the Signoria of Florence to the Doge Michael Steno, dated 8th June 1403, from which we learn that the Venetian Republic had sought to secure the services of Nicolo di Piero, for the construction of a certain hall in the ducal palace of Venice, but that this master, engaged to the Guild of Notaries, and occupied with various labours for the Florentine Cathedral, was not able to comply with the wishes of the Venetians. Other memorials of this sculptor have been collected by Gaye, from documents relating to the works of the Duomo of Florence. Among them is one by which “hath been awarded to Niccolo Piero Lamberti, Donato di Niccolo Betti Bardi (Donatello), and to Nanni d’Antonio (di Banco),—to each a figure in marble, for the four Evangelists, on condition that the fourth figure shall be executed by him who shall best have completed that here assigned to him.”
- ↑ Dello di Niccolo Delli is the name under which he is registered in the Guild of the Apothecaries, in the year 1417. Dello is probably the diminutive of Leonardello.—Ed. Flor. 1846-9.
- ↑ This work still exists. —Ibid.
- ↑ Of these figures no trace can now be found.—Ibid.
- ↑ This work has also perished.—Ibid.
