Masolino da Panicale

Masolino da Panicale

Masolino da Panicale (nickname of Tommaso di Cristoforo Fini; c. 1383 – c. 1447) was an Italian painter. His best known works are probably his collaborations with Masaccio: Madonna with Child and St. Anne (1424) and the frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel (1424–1428).

Biography

Masolino ("Little Tom") was born in Panicale. He may have been an assistant to Ghiberti in Florence between 1403 and 1407. In 1423, he joined the Florentine guild Arte dei Medici e Speziali (Doctors and Apothecaries), which included painters as an independent branch. He may have been the first artist to create of oil paintings in the 1420s, rather than Jan van Eyck in the 1430s, as was previously supposed. He spent many years traveling, including a trip to Hungary from September 1425 to July 1427 under the patronage of Pipo of Ozora, a mercenary captain. He also worked in Rome and Todi. He spent his later years, after 1435, working for Cardinal Branda Castiglione in Castiglione Olona.

Summary of work

Complete works

In Florence:

• Cappella Brancacci: cycle of frescoes in collaboration with Masaccio, 1424.
• Madonna and Child, Saint Anne and the Angels, collaboration with Masaccio, tempera on wood, 1424, Uffizi, Florence.
• Madonna dell'Umiltà, tempera on wood, 1430–35, Uffizi.

In Empoli:

• Cristo in pietà, detached fresco, 1424, Empoli, museum of the Collegiata di Sant'Andrea.
• Saint Ivo and the Pupils, fresco, 1424, Empoli, Church of Saint Steven.
• Virgin and Child, fresco, 1424, Empoli, Church of Saint Steven.

In Rome:

• Fresco commissioned by Branda da Castiglione in the Basilica di San Clemente, Chapel of Saint Catherine, 1428.
• Death of the Virgin and Crucifixion, fresco, Pinacoteca Vaticana.

In Castiglione Olona, where his patron was Branda da Castiglioney:

• Hungarian Landscape in the Palazzo Branda Castiglione.
• Story of the Virgin (1435) in the Collegiata.
• Frescoes depicting the Life of St. John the Baptist (1435) in the Baptistery of Castiglione Olona.

In Naples:

• Miracle of the Snow, ca. 1423, triptych, National Museum and Gallery of Capodimonte.

In France:

• Scenes from the Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitaller, tempera on wood, 21 x 39 cm, Musée Ingres.

In Germany:

• Madonna and Child, tempera on wood, Alte Pinakothek.
• Madonna and Child (1423), tempera on panel in Kunsthalle Bremen.

In the United States:

• The Annunciation (1425–1430) tempera on wood 148 x 115 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
• The Archangel Gabriel and The Virgin Annunciate, both ca. 1430, tempera (?) on panel, National Gallery of Art.

Dispersed pieces of works

• Lateral panels of an altarpiece with The Ascension at the center, from Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome, ca. 1427-28, started by Masaccio and completed by Masolino after his death: Saints John the Evangelist(?) and Martin of Tours, Saints Paul and Peter, Philadelphia Museum of Art; Pope Gregory the Great (?) and Saint Matthias, National Gallery, London; The Ascension National Museum and Gallery of Capodimonte, Naples.