ANDREA DA FIRENZE. - Florentine painter, according to Bonaini identical with Andrea Ristori of the parish of S. Pancrazio (1333-92), but identified by Milanesi, Berenson, van Marle and Toesca with Andrea di Buonaiuto or Bonaiuti; who, enrolled as early as 1343 in the guild of physicians and apothecaries, stipulated in 1365 the contract for the frescoes of S. Maria Novella, in 1366 took part in the commission for the construction of the Cathedral, received in 1377 payments for the paintings in the Camposanto of Pisa; his will is dated 2 Nov. 1377.
By Sirén there was attributed to the master, as a youthful work, the panel with St. Mary Magdalene, formerly in the Beckerath collection in Berlin, which criticism, however, does not unanimously recognize as his. The great cycles of A. in the Spanish Chapel at S. Maria Novella in Florence and in the Camposanto of Pisa show how, in the second half of the fourteenth century, A. in particular was sensitive to the Giottoesque heritage under Sienese influence. Nevertheless A. succeeded in creating a style of his own, decorative and pleasing for its liveliness of colour.
Beginning around 1365 the works at S. Maria Novella, A. was certainly a well-known and mature master. The Chapel, simple and square in form, was decorated entirely by A. but probably with the help of pupils, as the poorer parts show. The design is of a unified style; the theme represents the glorification of the Dominican order, and is influenced by the Specchio di vera penitenza of the prior of the convent Jacopo Passavanti (d. 1357), according to the scholastic ideas of St. Thomas and with reminiscences of Dante's Paradiso. The altar wall is decorated with the Journey to Calvary, with the Crucifixion and with the Descent into Limbo. On the entrance wall are scenes from the Story of St. Peter Martyr. On the right wall the Activity and Triumph of the Dominican Order; on the left the Triumph of St. Thomas Aquinas; in the vault of the great chapel, the Resurrection, the Ascension, the Navicella (after Giotto's mosaic in St. Peter's in the Vatican) and the Pentecost.
The three frescoes in the upper register, with the stories of St. Ranieri, in the Camposanto of Pisa - now much damaged - surpass those of the Spanish Chapel from the decorative and colouristic standpoint. The surface becomes even more crowded with people, without any order among the figures. It seems that the artist died after finishing the three scenes, because the pictorial cycle was completed by Antonio Veneziano. - See Pl. CII.
