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PSEUDO-PIER FRANCESCO FIORENTINO - b. ~1450 ?, d. 1500 Firenze - WGA

PSEUDO-PIER FRANCESCO FIORENTINO

(b. ~1450 ?, d. 1500 Firenze)

Italian painter or group of painters. The name was given by Berenson (1932) to an unknown artist whose work was previously confused with that of Pier Francesco Fiorentino (1444⁄45-after 1497), a mediocre follower of Benozzo Gozzoli and Bicci di Neri.

The numerous pictures attributed to the anonymous master do not in fact resemble Pier Francesco’s oeuvre. They are instead well-crafted, albeit mechanical, adaptations of paintings by Pesellino and Filippo Lippi. A few are copies of whole compositions, such as the Virgin Adoring the Christ Child in the chapel of the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, Florence, which replaced Lippi’s original (Berlin, Staatliche Museen). The Pseudo-Pier Francesco works derived from Lippi’s designs only (all from paintings dating from the 1450s) often combine motifs from more than one composition. Pesellino’s Madonnas (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston) were another frequent resource. Works by Pseudo-Pier Francesco are all marked by a lavish, archaic use of gold leaf, and many include elaborate rose-hedge backgrounds, probably derived from Domenico Veneziano.

Adoration of the Child with the Young St John
Adoration of the Child with the Young St John by

Adoration of the Child with the Young St John

This painting, still in its original frame, is a typical example of the ‘colmi da camera,’ which were small curved-top tabernacles for personal devotion. These were produced in series and destined to a broad range of patrons.

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Madonna and Child with a Goldfinch
Madonna and Child with a Goldfinch by

Madonna and Child with a Goldfinch

This composition is based on the design of the Madonna and Child by Pesellino (in the Isabella Stewart Garden Museum, Boston, and another version in the Christian Museum, Esztergom). The painting is the product of a busy Florentine workshop active over several decades in the second half of the fifteenth century, and specialising in popular but essentially mechanical derivations from designs by Fra Filippo Lippi and Pesellino. The production of this workshop is grouped under the name of Pseudo Pier Francesco Fiorentino.

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Madonna and Child with the Infant St John the Baptist
Madonna and Child with the Infant St John the Baptist by

Madonna and Child with the Infant St John the Baptist

The paintings of this anonymous artist do not, in fact, resemble those of Pier Francesco Fiorentino, but rather follow models by Pesellino and Filippo Lippi. As with the majority of his oeuvre, this work does not repeat a known composition by Lippi, but rather is a pastiche, combining a number of templates by that artist.

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Madonna and Child with the Infant St John the Baptist and an Angel
Madonna and Child with the Infant St John the Baptist and an Angel by

Madonna and Child with the Infant St John the Baptist and an Angel

Formerly, this panel was in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. It was sold for the Acquisitions Fund in 2013. Several variants of the design are known in various museums and private collections. Datable to the last third of the fifteenth century, this is a typical work by the hand known as the Pseudo Pier Francesco Fiorentino.

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