Domenico Veneziano - famous paintings for sale and biography

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.

Domenico was probably first trained in the International Gothic manner in Venice, where it is likely he saw paintings by northern European artists. He settled in Florence about 1439 and, except for brief periods, worked there until his death.
Two signed paintings 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 painting Domenico Veneziano executed in Florence. Its accurate perspective and the sculptural quality of the figures suggest he was influenced by Masaccio

One of the greatest Florentine artists of the early Renaissance was Domenico Veneziano. Though he undoubtedly painted dozens, maybe hundreds of Domenico Veneziano paintings during his lifetime from 1400 to 1461, only three major paintings 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 Domenico Veneziano oil 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 Domenico Veneziano 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.

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 paintings.

Famous Paintings by Domenico Veneziano