BALDOVINETTI, ALESSIO (ALESSO). – Painter, born in Florence on 14 October 1425, died there on 31 August 1499. In 1458 he received the commission for an *Annunciation* for the loggia of the Hospital of the Innocents; in 1460, that of a *Nativity* for the small cloister of the Most Holy Annunciation; in 1461 he was invited to complete a work by Domenico Veneziano in the church of Sant’Egidio, where Andrea del Castagno and Piero della Francesca had also worked, though almost no trace of their efforts remains; in 1466 he began the decoration of the chapel of the Cardinal of Portugal at San Miniato al Monte: first the Evangelists and Doctors of the Church, then the Prophets, and finally the *Annunciation*; in 1471 he frescoed the Gianfigliazzi chapel in the church of Santa Trinita, of which only the altarpiece with the *Trinity*, now in the Florentine gallery of the Accademia, survives in any significant form; in his later years he restored the mosaics on the façade of San Miniato al Monte and those of the Baptistery in Florence.
Even in his earliest surviving work, the three small scenes for the silverware cabinet in the church of the Most Holy Annunciation—now in the museum of San Marco in Florence, executed in the other parts by Fra Angelico and collaborators—the Baldovinetti reveals that he was trained in the milieu of Fra Angelico, Domenico Veneziano, and Andrea del Castagno. Yet he developed a distinctive role in relation to these masters, one that he entrusted to the line, sharp and vibrant but not constructive; a function that would remain highly active throughout his entire oeuvre. The *Annunciation* in the Uffizi, for instance, shows the influence of Fra Angelico and Domenico Veneziano, but the life of the figures is captured with particular immediacy, derived from the contour, which is delicate and incisive. In the *Nativity* at the Most Holy Annunciation, which Baldovinetti completed in tempera so that the fresco is now almost erased, the incisive outline of the figures and objects still stands out; in the late *Trinity* in the Accademia, angels, cherubim, and saints seem enclosed within “... contours with vigour and firmness, as if by an iron wire” (A. Venturi, *Predella di A. B. in Casa Buonarroti a Firenze*, in *L’Arte*, 30 [1927], p. 34). Yet in the *Nativity* the landscape also emerges, vast and low in relation to the composition, framed within a cubic setting, as in the paintings of Paolo Uccello and Piero della Francesca. The art of the latter exercised a clear influence on Baldovinetti, particularly between 1462 and 1466: this is evident not only in the aforementioned fresco but also in the *Saints* in the chapel of the Cardinal of Portugal and the *Madonna* in the Louvre. The effects, however, are opposite to those of Piero della Francesca: whereas Piero conceived the image abstractly within space, over which colour was then spread, Baldovinetti, analytical and sensitive, tended above all to the psychology of the figures and, through the vibration of the line, imbued them with a keen sense of spirituality that constitutes his most evident characteristic. This is true even when the painter focused specifically on problems of relief and perspective, as in the *Prophets* at San Miniato al Monte, the culmination of Baldovinetti’s plastic-spatial abilities; yet even in these works, psychological interest remains predominant. It is this quality that defines what is considered the artist’s masterpiece, the *Annunciation* in the chapel of the Cardinal of Portugal, in which the faces of Mary and Gabriel reveal a figurative-sentimental delicacy that anticipates Leonardo.
Vasari, in his life of Baldovinetti, highlights the painter’s intense preoccupation with technical research. His desire to improve the execution of paintings, especially frescoes, led him to numerous experiments and innovations; some of these may even have contributed to the ruin of his works. Though he did not achieve absolute results, Baldovinetti is one of the most significant exponents of the complex taste of his time. He left behind a “Libro di ricordi.”
— See Pl. XLVII.