Lorenzo Monaco

Lorenzo Monaco (c. 1370 – c. 1425) was born Piero di Giovanni and trained in Florence in the tradition of Giotto and his followers Agnolo Gaddi and Spinello Aretino. Long described as Sienese, he is now thought more likely to have been born in Florence. In 1390 he entered the Camaldolese monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli as a novice, taking vows the following year, and worked there as both a manuscript illuminator and a panel painter. From around 1404 his work took on the International Gothic manner: elongated figures, sinuous drapery, gold grounds and rich blues. He is regarded as the last important exponent of the Giottesque style before the changes brought by Masaccio and Fra Angelico. His Adoration of the Magi of 1420–22, now in the Uffizi, keeps his inventive line and colour while ignoring the new geometric perspective, and his late frescoes in the Bartolini Salimbeni Chapel of Santa Trinita show that his work stayed in demand to the end. Here: Adoration of the Magi.