STARNINA, GHERARDO. — Gherardo di Jacopo di S., painter.
Mentioned among the painters of Florence in 1387, between 1398 and 1401 he traveled to Spain, where he is recorded in Toledo and Valencia as the author of panel and mural paintings. In 1404 he was back in Florence working on a cycle of frescoes in the chapel of St. Jerome in the church of the Carmine; then in February 1409 he was in Empoli working in the church of St. Stephen. This is the last known record of him; on 28 October 1413 a document refers to him as already deceased. A pupil of Agnolo Gaddi, he was thus a painter closely tied to tradition—and this is evident in the Carmine paintings attributed to him—but according to Vasari, he played a far more significant role in the flourishing early 15th-century Florentine painting, acting as a conduit of the International Style to Florence and as the master of Masolino. However, the Carmine paintings, while they may support the belief that Starnina was indeed Masolino’s master, do not suggest that he served as a conduit for the mannered Gothic styles.
He would instead appear to have done so in a fresco of St. Denis, visible until a few years ago on the façade of the Palazzo di Parte Guelfa in Florence.