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PIERO DI COSIMO (1462-1521)

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 591 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PIERO DI COSIMO (1462-1521)  , the name by which the Florentine painter Pietro di Lorenzo is generally known . He was See also:born in See also:Florence about 1462, and worked in the bottega of Cosimo See also:Rosselli (from whom he derived his popular name) . Other influences that can be traced in his See also:work are those of Filippino See also:Lippi, Luca See also:Signorelli, and Leonardo da See also:Vinci, and, as has been recently suggested by See also:Professor R . Muther, that of See also:Hugo See also:van der Goes, whose Portinari See also:altar-piece (now at the Spedale of S . Maria Novella in Florence) helped to See also:lead the whole of Florentine See also:painting into new channels . From him, most probably, he acquired the love of landscape and the intimate knowledge of the growth of See also:flowers and of See also:animal See also:life . The See also:influence of Hugo van der Goes is especially apparent in the " See also:Adoration of the Shepherds," at the See also:Berlin Museum . He had the See also:gift of a fertile fantastic See also:imagination, which, as a result of a See also:journey to See also:Rome in 1482 with his See also:master, Rosselli, became: directed towards the myths of classic antiquity . He proves himself a true See also:child of the See also:Renaissance in such pictures as the " See also:Death of Procris," at the See also:National See also:Gallery, the " See also:Mars and See also:Venus," at the Berlin Gallery, the " See also:Perseus and See also:Andromeda " See also:series, at the Uffizi in Florence, and the " See also:Hylas and the See also:Nymphs " belonging to Mr See also:Benson . If, as we are told by See also:Vasari, he spent the last years of his life in gloomy retirement, the See also:change was probably due to See also:Savonarola, under whose influence he turned his See also:attention once more to religious See also:art . The " Immaculate Conception," at the Uffizi, and the " See also:Holy See also:Family," at See also:Dresden, best illustrate the religious fervour to which he was stimulated by the stern preacher . With the exception of the landscape background in Rosselli's See also:fresco of the " See also:Sermon on the See also:Mount," in the Sistine See also:Chapel, we have no See also:record of any fresco work from his See also:brush .

On the other See also:

hand, he enjoyed a See also:great reputation as a portrait painter, though the only known examples that can be definitely ascribed to him are the portrait of a See also:warrior, at the National Gallery, (No . 895), the so-called " Bella Simonetta," at See also:Chantilly, the portraits of Giuliano di See also:San Gallo and his See also:father, at the See also:Hague, and a See also:head of a youth, at See also:Dulwich . Vasari relates that See also:Piero excelled in designing pageants and triumphal processions for the See also:pleasure-loving youths of Florence, and gives a vivid description of one such procession at the end of the See also:carnival of 1507, which illustrated the See also:triumph of death . Piero di Cosimo exercised considerable influence upon his See also:fellow pupils See also:Albertinelli and Bartolommeo della Porta and was the master of See also:Andrea del Sarto . Examples of his work are also to be found at the Louvre in See also:Paris, the Harrach and See also:Liechtenstein collections in See also:Vienna, the See also:Borghese Gallery in Rome, the Spedale degli Innocenti in Florence, and in the collections of Mr See also:John See also:Burke and See also:Colonel See also:Cornwallis See also:West in See also:London . A " Magdalen" from his brush was added to the National Gallery of Rome in 1907r See Piero di Cosimo, by F . Knapp (See also:Halle, 1899) ; Piero di Cosimo, by H . Haberfeld (See also:Breslau, 1901) .

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