andrea del castagno // biography (c. 1421/23

ANDREA DEL CASTAGNO

Known as: Florentine Renaissance painter

Born: c. 1421/23, Castagno, near Florence, Italy

Birthname: Andrea di Bartolo di Bargilla

Also known as: Andrea di Bartolomeo di Simone di Bargilla

Date of death: 1457 (plague)

Like so many of the Italian painters from this period, little is actually known about the life of Andrea del Castagno. Indeed, if you look at biogs. of him, they are strung-out with intrepretations of his works because the biographer is loathed to admit that he/she knows next to nothing about the painter! And with the last sentence, I've joined them!

What is known is that he worked most of his life in Florence except for a period around 1442 when he worked in Venice. His work included frescoes for the refectory of the monastery of Sant’ Apollonia (1445-1450); decoration of the Villa Carducci-Pandolfini in Legnaia (c.1449-1451); work with Domenico Veneziano at San Egidio in 1451; and after this date he worked on a series of frescoes for the Santissima Annunziata.

He died of the plague in 1457.

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