Lorenzo Monaco

orig. Piero di Giovanni

(born c. 1370/71, Siena, Republic of Siena—died c. 1425, Florence, Republic of Florence) Italian painter. He took the vows of the Camaldolese order in Florence in 1391 (Monaco means “Monk”), but in 1402 he was enrolled in the painters' guild there under his lay name and living outside the monastery. His work combined the graceful lines and decorative feeling of the Sienese school with the traditions of the Florentine school. His Coronation of the Virgin (1413) reveals his predilection for swirling draperies and rhythmic, curvilinear forms and his understanding of light. His late frescoes in the Bartolini Chapel of Santa Trinità in Florence establish him as a master of Gothic art.

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