PESELLINO, FRANCESCO DI STEFANO called il - Painter, b. in Florence ca. 1422, d. there in 1457. The lack of certain works makes it impossible to assess how much P. owes to the teaching and influence of Giuliano d'Arrigo (Pesello: whence the nickname), who started him in the art of painting. The artist is found in the workshop of Giuliano Pesello, except for interruptions, from 1427 to 1433.

Vasari records that P. executed the predella (3 panels in the Uffizi; 2 panels in the Louvre) of the Madonna with the Child between Sts. Francis, Damian, Cosmas and Anthony, a work by Fra Filippo Lippi (Florence, Uffizi; ca. 1438); according to Cavalcaselle, even in this central part the collaboration of P. is to be recognized. To 1455 there also dates the altarpiece that P. executed for the Compagnia della S.ma Trinità in Pistoia, later completed by Filippo Lippi. In this painting - now in the National Gallery of London - the parts due to P. are easily isolable; and on the basis of these two authenticated works it is possible to reconstruct his activity, though not without disagreements in the attributions, as, for example, in the case of the Sts. Jerome and Francis in the Lindenau Museum in Altenburg (also attributed to Filippo Lippi), the Madonna with the Child between Sts. Peter, Anthony and Angels, in the Condé Museum, at Chantilly, etc. Certainly, P. owes his strongest influence to Filippo Lippi, whose assistant he often was, drawing his inspiration especially from the manner of Masaccio, but also from the friar's latest "Castagno-Squarcione" manner. He nevertheless revealed other impressions: from Castagno, from Paolo Uccello, from Blessed Angelico, proving himself a pleasing, decorative narrator. Among the most Angelico-like works of P. are certainly The Triumph of Fame and The Triumph of Time in the Gardner Museum of Boston; while the cassoni with Stories of King David from the Thomas Lloyd collection in London are inspired by Castagno and Paolo Uccello. Of P. there are finally to be remembered the Stories of Griselda (Bergamo, Accademia); the Crucifixion (Gallery of Esztergom).

PESELLINO, FRANCESCO DI STEFANO called il - The Holy Trinity. London, National Gallery.

Bibliography7 works

BIBL.: B. Berenson, Pitture italiane del Rinascimento, Milan 1930; P. Toesca, F. P. miniatore, in Dedalo, 1932, p. 85 ff.; G. Gronau, s. v. in Thieme-Becker, XXVI, p. 463 (with ample bibl.); A. Scharf, Zur Kunst des F. P., in Pantheon, 1934, p. 211 ff.; R. van Marle, The Development of the It. Schools of Paint, X, p. 469; P. Toesca, s. v. in Enc. Ital., XXVI, p. 970; M. Pittaluga, Filippo Lippi, Florence 1949, passim.

Luigi Grassi

@incollection{ec9_pesellino_francesco_di_stefano, author = {Grassi, Luigi}, title = {Pesellino, francesco di stefano detto il}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IX}, pages = {1274--1275}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/pesellino-francesco-di-stefano-detto-il} }

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Pesellino, Francesco di Stefano detto Il

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