Perseus y andromeda piero di cosimo biography
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The artist, Piero di Cosimo, an eccentric, imaginative Florentine painter, working above all to make the narration clean and the improbably musical instruments or eastern costumes of the subjects credible, rather than evoking the drama of the story, also diluted by the reassuring view of the sea in which the enormous monster is swimming, almost bathing in a pond.
The panel, which comes form Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, passed into the collection of Sforza Almeni, confidential servant to grand duke, Cosimo I de’ Medici and then to the Medici collections.
In the composition, the jubilation of Andromeda’s father and the laughing crowds, shown on the right, contrasts with the desperation of the family at the destiny of the young princess in the scene on thee left.
The subject of the painting, derived from the Ovid’s Metamorphoses illustrates the story of a famous couple from Greek mythology and seems right for the destination of the panel, painted as part of the furnishings for a nuptial room, most likely that of Filippo Strozzi the younger and Clarice de’ Medici in Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, on which cabinet maker Baccio d’Agnolo was working in 1510-1511.
And his eccentric life was one of the first examples that reinforced the conclusion that Cézanne provocatively reached in the 19th century: the most seductive aspect of art is the artist’s own personality.
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Perseus Freeing Andromeda by Piero di Cosimo
In the painting, Andromeda is depicted as a beautiful young woman, chained to a rock on the coast.
He was a marginal artist, who, despite his talent, remained outside the patronage of the Medici and had to survive with the occasional private commission (he was a very good portraitist), because he lived almost all the time locked up, avoiding any comfort, with an enthusiasm for his work that made him forget everything else.
Perseus Freeing Andromeda (ca.
Let us remember that mannerism was an “evolution” of the Renaissance on the way to the Baroque, and was characterized by a more garish coloring, a certain dramatism (which was in crescendo until the Baroque) and an “exaggerated” concern for representations that require great technical virtuosity to demonstrate the style (the “maniera”) of the artist.
It was in the Uffizi as early as 1598, in the Tribuna.
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In short, elements that gave the works a certain artificial tone, not very simple, and not very natural.Piero di Cosimo was a cursed painter of the Renaissance. Perseus is shown twice more in the painting, when he sees the dragon and the young sacrificial victim, while flying through the skies on his winged sandals, when he celebrates the liberation of Andromeda, who will become his bride.
70 cm x 123 cm
Uffizi Gallery. The painting explores themes such as platonic love, family ties, ideal beauty, marriage, and natural beauty.
Notably, it features portraits of prominent figures from Florence’s elite upper ruling class, including members of the powerful Medici family.
As of 2023, the painting is housed in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.
Perseus frees Andromeda
In the centre of the composition, Perseus is dealing with the sea monster that is about to attack Andromeda, daughter of the King of Ethiopia, offered as a sacrifice to placate the monster’s ire.
Piero di Cosimo
Oil on table. The monster had been unleashed by Poseidon, angry with the boastful Cassiopeia, Andromeda’s mother. And many of his scenes seem like dreams, which are difficult to decipher.
That is why, four centuries later, Piero di Cosimo was “rediscovered” and admired by the surrealists (as happened with Bosch, whose work The Garden of Earthly Delights is from the same period as the one chosen).
Di Cosimo’s painting is historically located in a transition that oscillates between Renaissance and Mannerist painting.
Florence, Italy
Piero di Cosimo was an artist with an unparalleled imagination. (It is said that he used to boil a huge number of eggs and eat them according to his appetite, so as not to waste time eating).
Vasari, the biographer of that time, said that Di Cosimo spent most of his life in solitude, in seclusion, “more like a beast than a man.”
As could not be otherwise, his works have an unconventional look, something we notice from the very first moment, from the coloring itself.
Piero di Cosimo
Fundamental Paintings to Understand the History of Painting
We could make this publication thanks to small donations.How is 3 minutos de arte supported? The scene is set against a rocky landscape with trees, and the figures are surrounded by onlookers, including soldiers and peasants.
Piero di Cosimo’s painting is known for its intricate details and vivid colors, as well as the artist’s imaginative interpretation of the mythological scene.
This Renaissance masterpiece was inspired by the story from Ovid’s “Metamorphoses”.
We find mythology, fantastic worlds, horrendous, bizarre beings, beasts, and satyrs in them. And he was one of the first famous painters in history to be considered a “cursed artist.”
Why was he so called? The sea monster is shown emerging from the water, while Perseus, wearing his winged sandals and holding his sword, swoops down from the sky to save her.
1510-15).