PSEUDO PIER FRANCESCO FIORENTINO

PSEUDO PIER FRANCESCO FIORENTINO, b. Italy, Florence mid 15th C., and Pseudo-Pier Francesco Fiorentino is a name coined by the art historian Bernard Berenson in 1932 to describe an artist whose work was previously confused with that of Pier Francesco Fiorentino. The numerous works attributed to this anonymous master do not in fact resemble Pier Francesco's oeuvre and are instead well-crafted adaptations of paintings by Pesellino and Filippo Lippi. A few are copies of whole compositions, such as the Virgin Adoring the Christ Child in the chapel of the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, Florence, which replaced Lippi's original. The Pseudo-Pier Francesco’s works derived from Lippi's designs (all from paintings dating from the 1450s) often combine motifs from more than one composition. Pesellino's Madonnas were another frequent resource for the master. Works by Pseudo-Pier Francesco are all characterised by a lavish, archaic use of gold leaf, and many include elaborate rose-hedge backgrounds. In 1976 the art historian Federico Zeri noted that this "artist" was in fact a workshop of artists imitating the compositions, figural groups, and motifs from Filippo Lippi and Pesellino. It is possible that the artist or workshop had direct contact with these two artists and copied from their original paintings. Yet another art historian, Creighton Gilbert, proposed in 1988 that the Pseudo-Pier Francesco Fiorentino is actually the Italian artist Riccardo di Benedetto, also known as "Riccardo delle nostre donne" for his painted Madonnas. In any case, this artist or workshop specialized in half-length Madonna and Child compositions with limited variations in the background or in the attendant saints or angels., “PSEUDO PIER FRANCESCO FIORENTINO,” UCSB ADA Museum Omeka, accessed April 25, 2024, http://art-collections.museum.ucsb.edu/items/show/3192.