Piero di Cosimo

Florentine School

Summary

A reproduction produced by the Vasari Society of a drawing by Piero di Cosimo. The drawing shows three men dressed in monk habits. One is standing on a grassy mound in the upper left of the canvas, while another is kneeling at his feet and kissing the first man's left foot. The third man is standing on the right, observice the scene with his right hand raised. All three men have halos in the form of lines on top of their heads. Text from the accompanying booklet produced by the Vasari Society: "No. 3 FLORENTINE SCHOOL (about 1500) (PIERO DI COSIMO?) THREE MONKS: ONE OF WHOM IS DOING HOMAGE TO ANOTHER Collection of Miss Eleanor Child. Pen and light bistre. 19 x 20.1 cm. (7 1/2 x 7 7/8 in.). The style of this interesting drawing points beyond doubt to some Florentine artist of the time about 1500 and within the radius of Leonardo's influence. It seems, however, that there is evidence enough to justify one's going beyond this general classification, and assigning the drawing, at least in a tentative fashion, to a definite artist, namely Piero di Cosimo. It is true that the quality of stroke is somewhat coarser and the style more purerly linear than is usual in Piero's pen-drawings, but this need hardly exclude him a priori, and the drawing certainly exhibits very close analogies with the art of Piero as regards the square build of the figures, the drawing of the hands, the facial types, the design of drapery, and the jerky rhythm of movement. Perhaps the picture by Piero in which these features of style are most clearly paralleled is the Madonna and Saints in the Spedale degli Innocenti at Florence. T. B."