Italian Domenico Veneziano painting, nude oil paintings

Domenico Veneziano
Italian Renaissance artist
born 1410 - died 1461

Early Italian Renaissance painter (full name: Domenico di Bartolomeo da Venezia), one of the founders of the 15th-century Florentine school of painting.
We know very little about the life and work of this painter; and even Vasari knew very little, so that Domenico Veneziano filled his biography of Domenico with complicated theories and colourful anecdotes. Vasari not only recounts the invented story of Domenico being murdered by Andrea del Castagno (actually Andrea died before Domenico), but also praises Veneziano as the artist who first introduced oil painting to Tuscany. Historically wrong and not justified by any of Domenico's works, this statement is used by Vasari in order to back up his description of the artist as the master of the typically Venetian use of colour, as opposed to Andrea del Castagno, the master of the Florentine art of disegno.
Domenico was probably first trained in the International Gothic manner in Venice, where it is likely Domenico Veneziano saw paintings by northern European artists. Domenico Veneziano settled in Florence about 1439 and, except for brief periods, worked there until his death.
Two signed works by Domenico survive. The first, a much-damaged fresco of the Virgin and Child enthroned and two damaged heads of saints (National Gallery, London), formed part of the Carnesecchi Tabernacle and may have been the first work Domenico executed in Florence. Its accurate perspective and the sculptural quality of the figures suggest Domenico Veneziano was influenced by Masaccio.Italian Domenico Veneziano painting, nude oil paintings - Domenico Veneziano Italian oil painting nude –Domenico Veneziano Bio and nude oil painting nude by Italian oil paintings nude art of nude oil paintings and Veneziano paintings.
The first document concerning him we have is the letter that Domenico Veneziano himself wrote in April 1438 from Perugia (where he was working for the Baglioni family, as Vasari tells us) to Piero de' Medici, asking him for help in obtaining the commission for a painting from Cosimo the Elder, Piero's father. In 1439 Domenico returned to Florence from Perugia in 1439 and Domenico Veneziano is documented as working on the frescoes of stories from the life of the Virgin in the church of Sant'Egidio inside the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova. On this project Domenico Veneziano was working in collaboration with Piero della Francesca. After Domenico Veneziano had painted the scenes of the Meeting at the Golden Gate and the Birth of the Virgin, in 1445 Domenico suddenly stopped working; we do not know what caused this interruption, but Domenico Veneziano left the fresco of the Wedding of the Virgin unfinished (it was completed later, in 1461, by Alesso Baldovinetti). The rest of the stories were painted by Andrea del Castagno between 1451 and 1453. The entire cycle was destroyed in the 18th century.
Between 1445 and 1447 Domenico Veneziano painted his second surviving signed work: an altarpiece for the Church of Santa Lucia dei Magnoli, usually called the Magnoli, or St Lucy, altarpiece. The central panel, the Virgin and Child with four saints (Uffizi, Florence), is one of the outstanding paintings produced in Florence in the middle of the 15th century. The five panels of the predella are now dispersed, they are now in the museums of Washington, Cambridge and Berlin.
A tondo of the Adoration of the Magi (Staatliche Museen, Berlin) is of uncertain date. It combines gay colour with careful realism and has an expansive and accurately drawn landscape background.
As we learn from Vasari, as soon as Domenico Veneziano had finished the Magnoli Altarpiece Domenico went to the Marches, in 1447, to fresco the ceiling of the church of Santa Maria in Loreto. Once again Domenico Veneziano was working together with Piero della Francesca. The cycle was never completed because an epidemic of plague broke out in the Marches and Domenico Veneziano returned to Florence. The parts that had been painted were later destroyed.
The fresco representing Saints John the Baptist and Francis is the artist's last known painting. Originally in the Cavalcanti Chapel, next to the choir in the church of Santa Croce, the fresco was removed from the wall in 1566, when the choir was torn down as part of the modernization project directed by Vasari.Italian Domenico Veneziano painting, nude oil paintings - Domenico Veneziano Italian oil painting nude –Domenico Veneziano Bio and nude oil painting nude by Italian oil paintings nude art of nude oil paintings and Veneziano paintings.
After Domenico Veneziano had finished the frescoes in Santa Croce, as we learn from a document dated 1454, Domenico was called to Perugia; together with Angelico and Lippi, his opinion was asked on the frescoes that Bonfigli had painted in the Chapel of the Priors. Domenico Veneziano is also mentioned in the expenditure ledger of the church of Santa Trinità in Pistoia, who paid him for a consultancy concerning the altarpiece of the Trinity by Pesellino and Filippo Lippi in 1457 (today the altarpiece is in the National Gallery, London). If in 1457 Domenico was still so widely respected as to be called upon to judge such an important work, we can suppose that Domenico Veneziano remained active until the year of his death, 1461, even though no works dating from the decade preceding his death survive.

As an artist, do you ever pause to reflect as to how your work will be seen five hundred years from now? Moreover, maybe the real question is if it will be seen five hundred years from now. Things happen. Wars, floods, fires, theft, political insurrection--art, being the fragile luxury it is, often suffers. Given the history of human development, it's a miracle we even have any art more than a hundred or two hundred years old. But even during wars, famine, pestilence, and tribulations of other sorts, heroic men and women risk their lives to steal away man's greatest art treasures, hiding them until better times return. We saw this in our century during the Second World War in Europe; but it happened time and again before that. Unfortunately, sometimes it doesn't come out of hiding. In spite of their best efforts, the work suffers or is lost. Those responsible for "saving" it often die, get killed, or perhaps just plain forget where they hid stuff.

One of the greatest Florentine painters of the early Renaissance was Domenico Veneziano. Though he undoubtedly painted dozens, maybe hundreds of works during his lifetime from 1400 to 1461, only three major works survive and one of them has been split and split again into three or four separate units, spread between Washington, Berlin, Florence, and Cambridge, Massachusetts. That would be the Santa Lucia del Magnoli Altarpiece the central panel of which is now in the Uffizi. Besides the centre panel, there originally were possibly as many as four predellas (side panels), one of which has been lost. The other three are The Martyrdom of St. Lucy, St. John in the Desert, and The Adoration of the Magi. There is some question as to whether the latter of these is, in fact, a predella or a separate work. It's the one in the Staatlich Museen in Berlin, along with his The Martyrdom of St. Lucy. There are others, but they are of doubtful attribution.

Veneziano was originally named Domenico, de Bartolomeo di Venezia (no wonder Domenico Veneziano shortened it). Born and raised in Florence, where he spent his entire life, indications are Domenico Veneziano studied under the great Florentine painter, Masaccio. However there is not in any way the "heaviness" of Masaccio's style in Veneziano's work. In fact his painting is most noted for the lightness, its carefully organized, spacious perspective, and careful attention to the human figure. In a word, there is a "naturalness" about his painting in marked contrast to that which went before and as a strong influence upon that which came after. Leonardo's work bears traces of it. His perspective is letter perfect, though still on the one-point variety, typical of his day. And his backgrounds, carefully rendered landscapes, spawned later attention to this area of painting amongst Florentine artists.Italian Domenico Veneziano painting, nude oil paintings - Domenico Veneziano Italian oil painting nude –Domenico Veneziano Bio and nude oil painting nude by Italian oil paintings nude art of nude oil paintings and Veneziano paintings.

Also surviving the ravages of time, is a Veneziano fresco, The Carnesecchi Tabernacle, painted around 1440 (now in London's National Gallery) in which Masaccio's influence can be detected. And that's about it, folks. A lifetime of painting distilled into less than a half-dozen surviving, masterful works. And while you're pausing to reflect upon your work and the odds of it rendering you some semblance of immortality, keep in mind that Domenico Veneziano was one of the greatest painters of his time, yet, we barely know him, or his work.

contributed by Lane, Jim

Veneziano was an early Renaissance painter who worked in Perugia, Tuscany and Florence. His masterpiece work, called The Saint Lucia dei Magnoli Altarpiece, or Saint Lucy Altarpiece, now hangs in the Uffizi Gallery. It was originally painted for the Church of Santa Lucia dei Magnoli in Florence, of which the center panel, Virgin and Child with four saints is what survives at the Uffizi. Other pieces from the predella panels of the work, including Saint John in the Desert, have toured other institutions such as the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., also in Cambridge and Berlin.

While much about Veneziano’s life is unknown or even contested, Domenico Veneziano is considered a founding painter of the 15th century Florentine School. His birth name is Domenico di Bartolomeo da Venezia, and the surname Veneziano may indicate his birthplace of Venice. As a young boy, Domenico Veneziano is said to have trained with Gentile da Fabriano (1370 – 1427) in Florence, but might have also had exposure and training in Venice in the International Gothic style of northern European artists. It may also be the case where Domenico Veneziano trained and worked with Pisanello (1395 – 1455) in Rome.

There are two early works of Veneziano that are of his few surviving piece, though badly damaged. One is a fresco, Virgin and Child enthroned, the other is a work of two heads of saints which were from the Carnesecchi Tabernacle in Florence. Within these pieces is a noted influence of one of Italy’s first renowned Renaissance painters, Masaccio (1401 – 1427). There is also an influence from the Florentine painter, Benozzo Gozzoli (1421 – 1497) in Veneziano’s works.

There is record of Domenico Veneziano having worked on frescos with Piero della Francesca (1416 – 1492) for the church of Sant’Egidio in the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova. These frescos, now lost, depicted stories from the life of the Virgin, but were left incomplete and later finished by Alesso Baldovinetti (1425 – 1499), who Veneziano notably influenced. Veneziano worked with Francesca later again on frescos in the Church of Santa Maria in Loreto, but these were also left incomplete, due to a plague outbreak.Italian Domenico Veneziano painting, nude oil paintings - Domenico Veneziano Italian oil painting nude –Domenico Veneziano Bio and nude oil painting nude by Italian oil paintings nude art of nude oil paintings and Veneziano paintings.

Veneziano’s last work was in the Church of Santa Croce, a piece of Saint John the Baptist and Saint Francis. The artist was well know and regarded for his effective blending of colour and use of perspective for the period. Another noted influence on an artist Domenico Veneziano had was towards innovative painter Andrea Mantegna (1431 – 1506). Some of Veneziano’s legacy is fallacy as well, at least in the account of the influential biographer and artist Giorgio Vasari (1511 – 1574). It was alleged that Veneziano was the first painter to use oil in Tuscany, and shared his then secret technique with another young artist Andrea del Castagno (1421 – 1457). Vasari then claimed that Castagno, in order to retain the secret technique for himself, murdered Veneziano. Though there is no historical evidence that Veneziano was the first oil painter and as the dates show, Castagno died four years before Veneziano.

The major contribution of the Italian painter Domenico Veneziano (1410 c.-1461) to early Renaissance painting was his subtle observation of the reaction of colors to conditions of natural light.

Domenico Veneziano whose real name was Domenico di Bartolomeo da Venezia, was originally from Venice, but Domenico Veneziano worked in Florence for most of his life. His date of birth is uncertain but can be approximated through stylistic comparisons with his better-documented contemporaries, such as Fra Filippo Lippi and Andrea del Castagno.

The titles of oil painting old master Domenico Veneziano