STEFANO FIORENTINO. - Painter of the fourteenth century, father of the Tommaso known as Giottino, whose personality has recently been the subject of attempts at identification.
In a register of revenues of S. Giovanni fuorcivitas in Pistoia he is indicated as one of the best painters active in Florence on behalf of the Dominicans (between 1347 and 1359). His oeuvre has recently been delineated by Longhi among anonymous or uncertainly attributed works of the Trecento, giving credence to the indications of literary sources (Filippo Villani, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Giorgio Vasari), which praise his “diligence” or his “unified manner.” Since every trace of the master's activity in Florence has disappeared, his hand should therefore be recognized in an Annunciation in a private Genoese collection; in an Enthroned Madonna and a Magdalene in the Pinacoteca Vaticana, attributed to the school of P. Lorenzetti; as well as in a Crucifixion in the Kress collection in New York and in a group of Assisi frescoes: Crucifixion in the old Chapter House of S. Francesco; Coronation of the Virgin in the large lunette above the pulpit in the Lower Church; Crucifixion in the oratory of S. Rufinuccio; fresco with the Virgin and Child, above a city gate and now in the Museo civico; Crucifixion and Annunciation in the convent of S. Giuseppe; The Virgin Enthroned among Four Saints in the chapel on the right in S. Chiara. It is above all from this last work that the powerful individuality of the master emerges, placing him among the greatest artists of the Trecento.