Domenico Veneziano

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( 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.

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The major contribution of the Italian painter Domenico Veneziano (1410 c.-1461) to early Renaissance painting was his subtle observation of the reaction of colors to conditions of natural light.

Domenico Veneziano whose real name was Domenico di Bartolomeo da Venezia, was originally from Venice, but he worked in Florence for most of his life. His date of birth is uncertain but can be approximated through stylistic comparisons with his better-documented contemporaries, such as Fra Filippo Lippi and Andrea del Castagno.

Much uncertainty remains among scholars about the beginnings and the chronology of Domenico's art. In 1438 he wrote a letter to Piero de' Medici asking for work and mentioning Fra Angelico and Filippo Lippi. This shows that Domenico was well versed in Florentine artistic affairs and leads to the assumption that he might have been in Florence before 1439, when he settled there. Only minute fragments remain of the important series of frescoes he painted intermittently from 1439 to 1445 for the church of S. Egidio in Florence, in which he was assisted by Piero della Francesca. In the surviving fragment of the fresco from the so-called Carnesecchi Tabernacle one sees traces of Domenico's Venetian background in the construction and ornamentation of the marble throne on which the Madonna sits. This fragment also demonstrates Domenico's awareness of the art of his Florentine contemporaries Fra Angelico, Masolino, and Lorenzo Ghiberti, as well as the principles of linear perspective only recently discovered by the architect Filippo Brunelleschi and applied in relief sculpture by Donatello and in painting by Masaccio.

Dated about 1445 is Domenico's well-preserved altarpiece from the church of S. Lucia dei Magnoli in Florence and the five fragments of its predella. The elaborate architectural settings in bright, light greens, pinks, and grays, as well as the simulated marble inlay patterns, are reminiscent of the colors of Giotto's bell tower of the Florence Cathedral and the ornamentation found in Tuscan proto-Renaissance buildings, such as the 12th-century Baptistery in Florence. The figures, well rendered with a sense of weight and volume, are plausibly situated in space. This is made especially eloquent through Domenico's strict observance of the natural flow of light and of the shadows cast by objects.

Other examples of Domenico's art are the fine Madonna against a Rose Hedge in Washington and the exquisite Madonna and Child in Florence (Berenson Collection). In his large tondo Adoration of the Magi there is a sumptuous display of ornament, and the figures clothed in fanciful garments are placed in a deeply receding and realistic landscape.

Further Reading

In English there is a fine article on Domenico Veneziano by Luciano Berti in the Encyclopedia of World Art, vol. 4 (1961). See also Lionello Venturi and Rosabianca Skira-Venturi, Italian Painting: The Creators of the Renaissance (1950), and Frederick Hartt, History of Italian Renaissance Art (1970).

Madonna with child, National Museum of Serbia, Belgrade c. 1445.

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Domenico Veneziano (c. 1410 – May 15, 1461) was an Italian painter of the early Renaissance, active mostly in Perugia and Tuscany.

Little is known of his birth, though he is thought to have been born in Venice, hence his last name. He then moved to Florence in 1422-23 as a boy, to become a pupil of Gentile da Fabriano. He is said to have worked with Pisanello in Rome around 1423-1430. One can see the influence of Benozzo Gozzoli in his work.

In a letter from him to Piero de' Medici, dated from Perugia in 1438, where he likewise resided for many years, he mentions his long connection with the fortunes of the Medici family, and begs to be allowed to paint an altar-piece for the head of that house. He was a contemporary with Fra Angelico and Fra Filippo Lippi, since those two artists and himself are known to have valued the frescoes of Buonfigli at Perugia. Between 1439 and 1441 he painted his masterpiece of the Adoration of the Magi.

One masterpiece is considered to be the St. Lucy Altarpiece (1445), originally in the Santa Lucia dei Magnoli in Florence but has been moved to the Uffizi. The painting, tempera on panel, displays such an unusual palette for this period that Vasari wrote that it had been painted in oil. He is also known for a round panel of the Adoration of the Magi (1439-1441) which was probably commissioned for the palace of the wealthy Medici family and now in Berlin. He influenced Andrea Mantegna.

Vasari alleged that Veneziano was murdered by Andrea del Castagno. However, Castagno died c. 1457, four years before Veneziano.

He worked at the decorations of the Portinari chapel in Santa Maria Novella in Florence from 1439-1445, and had as his assistants Piero della Francesca and Bicci di Lorenzo. It is certain that whilst employed there he used linseed oil as his medium, since the hospital books of that dato make many allusions to this item in his expenses. His latter days were spent in Florence, where he died on 15 May 1461, .

References

• Bryan, Michael (1889). Walter Armstrong & Robert Edmund Graves. ed. Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, Biographical and Critical (Volume II L-Z). York St. #4, Covent Garden, London; Original from Fogg Library, Digitized May 18, 2007: George Bell and Sons. pp. 652. http://books.google.com/books?id=K2cCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=Michael+Bryan+Painters+Engravers#PPP7,M1. 

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