COZZARELLI, Guidoccio

(b. 1450 Siena, d. ~1516 Siena)

Painter and illuminator. He trained in the workshop of Matteo di Giovanni, with whom he was associated from about 1470 to 1483 and with whom he is often confused.

Early illuminations for the Antiphonals of Siena Cathedral (c. 1480; Siena, Biblioteca Piccolomini) and a number of securely attributed paintings demonstrate Guidoccio’s development of a fine, distinctive style that reflects Tuscan and northern European as well as Sienese influences. A scene from an Antiphonal depicting a Religious Ceremony (Siena, Biblioteca Piccolomini), a fragment of an altarpiece depicting the Annunciation and the Journey to Bethlehem (Coral Gables, Lowe Art Museum) and a cassone panel depicting the Legend of Cloelia (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art) all combine masses of rusticated and classical architectural structures into perspective vistas. The dense cityscapes are played off against open sky and landscape, while porticos, gateways and vaulted spaces form the stage on which tactile and sprightly figures re-enact religious drama or ancient legends. In the Baptism of Christ with SS Jerome and Augustine (1470; Sinalunga, S Bernardino) the deep, panoramic landscape and triad of angels suggest Umbrian influences. A connection with Piero della Francesca through Matteo di Giovanni is possible.

Madonna and Child with Saints

In this devotional painting, to the right of the Madonna and Child are Sts Sebastian and Roch, both of whom were invoked for protection against sickness, and on the left is St Julian the Hospitaler. In the lower register, on either side of the Dead Christ are depicted the twin brothers and physicians Sts Cosmas and Damian, wearing their distinctive physician’s hats and holding their medical instruments. The inclusion of saints associated with protection from pestilence suggests that it was probably painted as a votive panel in thanksgiving for deliverance from a plague.

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Sts Agatha and Lucy

This panel of Sienese in origin has been attributed both to Cozzarelli and Matteo di Giovanni, who was probably the teacher of Cozzarelli around 1470. Cozzarelli has usually been regarded as an uninspired follower of Matteo, but this is contradicted by his two altarpieces in the church of San Bernardino in Sinalunga. Many of Matteo’s late works have often been assigned to Cozzarelli, while Cozzarelli’s best paintings are still taken for Matteo’s.

The painting consists of two panels which were joined together in the 19th century. They possible were the lateral panels of a triptych.

St Agatha and St Lucy were two of the early Christian martyrs. Both are depicted here carrying the symbols of their martyrdom: St Agatha her breasts and St Lucy her eyes.

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