Bernhard Berenson

In closing, let us note what results clearly even from this brief account of the Florentine school, namely that, although no Florentine merely took up and continued a predecessor’s work, nevertheless all, from first to last, fought for the same cause. There is no opposition between Giotto and Michelangelo. The best energies of the first, of the last, and of all the intervening great Florentine artists were persistently devoted to the rendering of tactile values, or of movement, or of both.

About 1240-about 1301.

The following works are all by the same hand, probably Cimabue’s.

1477-1543. Pupil first of Credi, and then of Ghirlandajo, whom he assisted; influenced by Botticelli, Michelangelo Fra Bartolommeo, and Pontormo.

Still another exemplification of his sense for the significant is furnished by his treatment of action and movement. The grouping, the gestures never fail to be just such as will most rapidly convey the meaning.

  • Assisi.
    • S. Francesco. Altar-frontal embroidered probably from designs by Piero.
  • Florence.
    • Bargello. Bust of Young Warrior (Terra-cotta). Hercules and Antæus (Bronze).
    • Opera del Duomo. Enamels in Pedestal of Silver Crucifix. Finished 1459. Birth of Baptist (Relief in Silver).

This was literally the case with the oldest among the leaders of the new generation, Alessio Baldovinetti, in whose scanty remaining works no trace of purely artistic feeling or interest can be discerned; and it is only less true of Alessio’s somewhat younger, but far more gifted contemporaries, Antonio Pollaiuolo and Andrea Verrocchio.

1474-1515. Pupil of Cosimo Rosselli and Pier di Cosimo; influenced by Lorenzo di Credi; worked in partnership with Fra Bartolommeo.

1452-1519. Pupil of Verrocchio.

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