Niccolò di Pietro Gerini
Encyclopedia
Niccolò di Pietro Gerini (ca. 1340–1414) was an Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 painter of the late Gothic
Gothic art
Gothic art was a Medieval art movement that developed in France out of Romanesque art in the mid-12th century, led by the concurrent development of Gothic architecture. It spread to all of Western Europe, but took over art more completely north of the Alps, never quite effacing more classical...

 period, active mainly in his native Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

. Niccolo di Pietro Gerini's works can be found in major art galleries in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, the Vatican
Vatican City
Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...

, Florence, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

, Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, St Petersburg, Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...

, Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...

, Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

, Pelago
Pelago
Pelago is a comune in the Province of Florence in the Italian region Tuscany, located about 20 km east of Florence. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 7,396 and an area of 54.8 km²....

, Prato
Prato
Prato is a city and comune in Tuscany, Italy, the capital of the Province of Prato. The city is situated at the foot of Monte Retaia , the last peak in the Calvana chain. The lowest altitude in the comune is 32 m, near the Cascine di Tavola, and the highest is the peak of Monte Cantagrillo...

, Pisa
Pisa
Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...

, Altenburg
Altenburg
Altenburg is a town in the German federal state of Thuringia, 45 km south of Leipzig. It is the capital of the Altenburger Land district.-Geography:...

, Avignon
Avignon
Avignon is a French commune in southeastern France in the départment of the Vaucluse bordered by the left bank of the Rhône river. Of the 94,787 inhabitants of the city on 1 January 2010, 12 000 live in the ancient town centre surrounded by its medieval ramparts.Often referred to as the...

, Denver, and several other museums.

Early life and family

Gerini's father, Pietro Geri, was registered as a member of the Guild of Saint Luke
Guild of Saint Luke
The Guild of Saint Luke was the most common name for a city guild for painters and other artists in early modern Europe, especially in the Low Countries. They were named in honor of the Evangelist Luke, the patron saint of artists, who was identified by John of Damascus as having painted the...

 in 1339. In 1368, Niccolò Dipintore is identified as a member of the Arte dei Medici e Speziali
Guilds of Florence
The guilds of Florence were secular corporations that controlled the arts and trades in Florence from the twelfth into the sixteenth century. These Arti included seven major guilds , five middle guilds and nine minor guilds...

 Guild (Guild of Doctors and Apothecaries, which included painters until 1378) in Florence. Niccolo worked mainly in Florence, although he also carried out commissions in Rome at the Vatican, and in Pisa and Prato.

Another important artist, Lorenzo di Niccolò di Martino, trained in Niccolò di Pietro Gerini's workshop and later collaborated with him, but was not his son as is sometimes erroneously stated. Gerini did have a son named Bindo di Niccolo di Pietro Gerini, born in 1363, who was registered as a member of the Guild of Saint Luke in 1408.

Career

Gerini represents the school of Giotto di Bondone
Giotto di Bondone
Giotto di Bondone , better known simply as Giotto, was an Italian painter and architect from Florence in the late Middle Ages...

, in the tradition of Andrea di Orcagna and of Taddeo Gaddi
Taddeo Gaddi
Taddeo Gaddi was a medieval Italian painter and architect.-Biography:He was the son of Gaddo di Zanobi, called Gaddo Gaddi. He was a member of Giotto's workshop from 1313 to 1337, when his master died...

. As is typical for Gothic depictions, Gerini's figures have large chins, sloping foreheads, and sharp noses whilst their bodies are squat and frontally displaced.

Gerini is recorded as collaborating with Jacopo di Cione
Jacopo di Cione
Jacopo di Cione was an Italian painter.Born in Florence between 1320 and 1330, he is closely associated with his three older brothers Andrea di Cione di Arcangelo , Nardo di Cione and Matteo di Cione. The di Cione brothers often worked collaboratively...

 on frescoes for the Guild hall of the Judges and Notaries in Florence in 1366. He is the Niccolaio Dipintore who worked with Jacopo di Cione on the altarpiece of the Coronation of the Virgin commissioned by the Albizzi
Albizzi
The Albizzi family was a Florentine family originally based in Arezzo, who were rivals of the Medici and Alberti families. They were at the centre of Florentine oligarchy from 1382, in the reaction that followed the Ciompi revolt, to the rise of the Medici in 1434...

 family for St Pier Maggiore in Florence in 1370. He was paid 12 golden florins per disegnare la tavola dell’altare (for the design of the altarpiece) in November of the same year. In addition to the altarpiece, he designed the elaborate throne canopy, while Jacopo di Cione actually produced the piece.

He collaborated with Jacopo di Cione on a second Coronation of the Virgin (Accademia, Florence) in 1372. It was commissioned by the mint of Florence Zecca Vecchia that same year. In 1383 Gerini again worked with Cione on a fresco of the Annunciation in the Palazzo dei Priori, Volterra
Volterra
Volterra, known to the ancient Etruscans as Velathri, to the Romans as Volaterrae, is a town and comune in the Tuscany region of Italy.-History:...

. This fresco clearly shows the work of two very different artists: Niccolò di Pietro Gerini (design and very fine painting) and Jacopo di Cione (broadly painted saints and side decoration).

In 1386 Niccolò frescoed the façade of the Loggia del Bigallo
Loggia del Bigallo
The Loggia del Bigallo is a late Gothic structure in Florence, Italy. It is one of a dozen public loggias in the city, in this case part of a construction that housed the Compagnia della Misericordia, who commissioned the structure, probably from the architect-sculptor Alberto Arnoldi; it was built...

, Florence. He also frescoed the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio
Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio
The Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio is a church in Milan, northern Italy.-History:One of the most ancient churches in Milan, it was built by St. Ambrose in 379-386, in an area where numerous martyrs of the Roman persecutions had been buried. The first name of the church was in fact Basilica...

 in Florence and executed a Crucifixion in the church of Santa Felicita, both in Florence. His hand can be also seen in the sacristy of the basilica of Santa Croce in the same city, depicting scenes from the life of Christ.

Between 1391 and 1392 he worked in Prato where he frescoed Palazzo Datini
Palazzo Datini
thumb|250px|Palazzo Datini.Palazzo Datini is a building in Prato, Tuscany central Italy. Begun in 1383 as the residence of merchant Francesco Datini, it was subsequently decorated by some of the most notable artists of that age, such as Agnolo Gaddi and Niccolò di Pietro Gerini, both internally and...

 and the Church of San Francesco with Lorenzo di Niccolò and Agnolo Gaddi
Agnolo Gaddi
Agnolo Gaddi was an Italian painter. He was the son and pupil of the painter Taddeo Gaddi.Taddeo Gaddi was himself the major pupil of the Florentine master Giotto...

. He also frescoed the capitals of the church of San Francesco, Pisa.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK