The Early Renaissance


   

Domenico Veneziano

( fl 1438; d Florence, bur 15 May 1461).

Italian painter. Venetian by birth or descent, he was one of the founders of Renaissance painting in Florence in the first half of the 15th century and the most enigmatic. His training (north Italian or Florentine), the chronology of his few surviving works (his only documented fresco cycle has perished and there is only one major altarpiece) and his relationship to contemporary painters, sculptors and theorists (particularly Alberti) have been debated; they cannot, given the shortage of evidence, be resolved satisfactorily. Yet, despite these difficulties, Domenico’s altarpiece for S Lucia de’ Magnoli in Florence (the St Lucy altarpiece; main panel in Florence, Uffizi), with its ambitious architectural setting, acutely described figures and its pale colours bathed in a convincing outdoor light, would alone assure him a central place in the history of Renaissance art.

Madonna and Child
after 1447
Tempera on wood, 83 x 57 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington

Madonna and Child
1435-37
Wood, 86 x 61 cm
Berenson Collection, Florence