MASOLINO DA PANICALE (1383c. 1445)

This article appears in Volume V17, Page 838 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: MAR-MEC

MASOLINO DA PANICALE (1383c. 1445) , Florentine painter, was said to have been born at Panicale di Valdelsa, near Florence. It is more probable, however, that he was born in Florence itself, his father, Cristoforo Fini, who was an " imbiancatore," or whitewasher, having been domiciled in the Florentine quarter of S. Croce. There is reason to believe that Tommaso, nick-named Masolino, was a pupil of the painter Stamina, and was principally influenced in style by Antonio Veneziano; he may probably enough have become in the sequel the master of Masaccio. He was born in 1383; he died later than 1429, perhaps as

late

LATE

as 1440 or even 1447. Towards 1423 he entered the service of Filippo Scolari, the Florentine-born obergespann of Temeswar in

Hungary

HUNGARY
HUNGARY (Hungarian Magyarorszdg)

, and stayed some time in that country, returning towards 1427 to Italy. The only works which can with certainty be assigned to him are a

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

wall

WALL (O. Eng. weal, weall, Mid. Eng. wal, wane, adapted from Lat. vallum, rampart; the
original
- ORIGINAL
O. Eng. word for a wall was wag or tenth)
WALL, RICHARD (1694-1778)

paintings executed towards 1428, commissioned by Cardinal Branda Castiglione, in the church of Castiglione d'Olona, not far from

Milan

MILAN
MILAN (Ital. Milano, Ger. Mailand, anc. Mediolanum, q.v.)

, and another

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

in the adjoining

baptistery

BAPTISTERY (Baptislerium, in the Greek Church 4wrurrilpiov)

. The first set is signed as painted by " Masolinus de Florentia." It was recovered in 1843 from a coating of white-

wash

WASH, THE

, considerably damaged; its subject matter is taken from the lives of the Virgin and of SS Lawrence and Stephen. The series in the

baptistery

BAPTISTERY (Baptislerium, in the Greek Church 4wrurrilpiov)

relates to the life and death of John the Baptist. The reputation of Masolino had previously rested almost entirely upon the considerable share which hewas supposed to have had in the celebrated frescoes of the Brancacci Chapel, in the Church of the

Carmine

CARMINE

in Florence; he was regarded as the precursor of Masaccio, and by many years the predecessor of Filippino Lippi, in the execution of a large proportion of these works. But from a comparison of the Castiglione with the Brancacci frescoes, and from other data, it is very doubtful whether Masolino had any hand at all in the latter series. Possibly he painted in the Brancacci Chapel certain specified subjects which are now either destroyed or worked over. Several paintings assigned to Masolino on the authority of

Vasari

VASARI, GIORGIO (1511-1571)

are now ascribed to Masaccio. (W. M. R.)

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