Paris Masters

( fl Florence, c. 1440-60). Italian painter. He was named by Schubring after the anonymous painting of the Judgement of Paris (Glasgow, A. G. & Mus.) and attributed with 22 other cassone paintings of mythological or historical subjects. This is not, however, a stylistically coherent group; only three of the works can be securely given to the same workshop as the Judgement of Paris: the Sleep of Paris and the Rape of Helen (ex-Lanckoronski priv. col., Vienna; see Wohl, pls 185, 186) and a Diana and Actaeon (see Wohl, pl. 188). To these four may be added two cassone panels of the story of Patient Griselda (Bergamo, Gal. Accad. Carrara). The six panels have at various times been associated with or attributed to Domenico Veneziano, Pesellino and Domenico di Michelino; but, although they share a common pictorial language with these artists, they have an artistic identity of their own. The Judgement of Paris and Diana and Actaeon were among the first Italian paintings of Classical mythology in which the nude figure predominates, but the new Classical subject-matter was painted in the Gothic style, and the artist probably also drew on Netherlandish illuminations containing nude figures.

Part of the Masters, anonymous, and monogrammists family

See the Abbreviations for further details.