Orcagna
Andrea di Cione di Arcangelo (c. 1308 – 25 August 1368), better known as Orcagna, was an Italian painter, sculptor, and architect active in Florence. He worked as a consultant at the Florence Cathedral and supervised the construction of the façade at the Orvieto Cathedral.[1] His monumental marble tabernacle (1352–1359), commissioned by the confraternity of Orsanmichele to protect the Maestà by Bernardo Daddi (1347) at Orsanmichele, was immediately praised.[2] The tabernacle, executed according to his design with the assistance of a team of selected sculptors and masons, included 117 figural sculptures or reliefs as part of a domed structure.[3]
His Strozzi Altarpiece (1354–1357) is noted as defining a new role for Christ as a source of Catholic doctrine and papal authority, as central figure enthroned actively handing out the (Dominican, or generally the Mendicant theology to Thomas Aquinas, and the keys of the church to St. Peter.[4][5]
Works
[edit]Orcagna's works include:
- Fresco of Saint Anne calling the citizens of Florence to arms against the tyrant Walter VI, Count of Brienne, Duke of Athens, formerly in the Stinche Prison (c. 1343), a huge circular painting with a truthful depiction of the Palazzo Vecchio, where it is displayed today.
- Altarpiece of the Redeemer (1354–1357) in the Strozzi di Mantova Chapel at Santa Maria Novella, Florence
- The tabernacle in Orsanmichele (1352–1359)
- The mosaic decoration and the design for the rose window of the cathedral of Orvieto is attributed to Orcagna, who had become Master of the Works in 1359.
- His fresco of the Crucifixion with a multitude of angels surrounding the cross, portrayed on a dark background and a few fragments of the Last Supper (1365).[6]
Pupils
[edit]Among Orcagna's pupils and legacy were:
- Nello di Vanni, a Pisan painter of the 14th century, who also worked for the Campo Santo. Nello di Vanni is conjectured to be identical with Bernardo Nello or Giovanni Falcone.[7]
- Tommaso del Mazza, called Tomasso di Marco by Giorgio Vasari.[8]
- Jacopo di Cione, brother of Andrea and mainly sculptor and architect.[9]
References
[edit]- ^ "Uffizi Gallery". Museumsinflorence.com.
- ^ Wolfgang Braunfels (1966) [1953]. Mittelalterliche Stadtbaukunst in der Toskana (in German) (3 ed.). Berlin: Gebrüder Mann. pp. 212 f.
- ^ Kreytenberg, G. (2003). "Cione, Andrea di". Grove Art Online. Retrieved 27 September 2025.
- ^ Millard Meiss (1978) [1951]. "I. The New Form and Content: Orcagna's Altarpiece". Painting in Florence and Siena after the Black Death. The Arts, Religion, and Society in the Mid-Fourteenth Century (4 ed.). Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press. pp. 9 ff. ISBN 0-691-00312-2.
- ^ Eimerl, Sarel (1967). The World of Giotto: c. 1267–1337. et al. Time-Life Books. p. 187. ISBN 0-900658-15-0.
- ^ "Cenacolo by Andrea". www.visitflorence.com.
- ^ Bryan, Michael (1889). Walter Armstrong; Robert Edmund Graves (eds.). Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, Biographical and Critical. Vol. II L-Z. London: George Bell and Sons. p. 586.
- ^ Gaetano Milanesi, ed. (1906) [1878]. Le vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori ed architettori scritte da Giorgio Vasari. Volume 1. Florence: G. C. Sansoni. p. 609.
- ^ Vasari/Milanesi 1906, p. 610.
External links
[edit]
- Middleton, John Henry (1911). . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 165–167.
