Orcagna

Statues of Andrea Orcagna in the Uffizi outside gallery in Florence

Andrea di Cione di Arcangelo (c. 1308 – August 25, 1368), better known as Orcagna, was an Italian painter, sculptor, and architect active in Florence. A student of Andrea Pisano as well as Giotto di Bondone, his younger brothers Jacopo di Cione and Nardo di Cione were also artists. The di Cione (pronounced dee choh’ nay) brothers often worked collaboratively.

Orcagna's works include the "Altarpiece of the Redeemer" (1354–57) in the Strozzi Chapel, Santa Maria Novella and the tabernacle in Orsanmichele (finished 1359) which was regarded as "the most perfect work of its kind in Italian Gothic".^[1]

His fresco The Triumph of Death inspired Franz Liszt's masterwork Totentanz. Among Orcagna's pupils is Nello di Vanni, a Pisan painter of the 14th century, who also worked for the Campo Santo. Nello di Vanni is conjectured to be identical with Bernardo Nello or Giovanni Falcone.^[2]

The mosaic decoration and the rose window of the cathedral of Orvieto is attributed to Orcagna, who had become Master of the Works in 1359.

References

1. ^ "Orcagna". Catholic Encyclopedia. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11275b.htm. 
2. ^ Bryan, Michael (1889). Walter Armstrong & Robert Edmund Graves. ed. Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, Biographical and Critical (Volume II L-Z). York St. #4, Covent Garden, London; Original from Fogg Library, Digitized May 18, 2007: George Bell and Sons. pp. 586. http://books.google.com/books?id=K2cCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=Michael+Bryan+Painters+Engravers#PPP7,M1. 

]