Painter
He was born at Castagno near Florence in 1421 c., where he was to
die of the plague in 1457.
As a painter he was influenced by Giotto and by Masaccio, and as a sculptor by Donatello; he proved
to have an extremely original drawing technique of dramatic chiaroscuro
which gave his work an effect of almost severe realism.
His first task was to paint the execution of some rebels on the facade of the
Bargello: he was known as the ìpainter of the hanged menî for this
reason. After living for a short time in Venice (1442), where he frescoed a chapel
in the church of San Zaccaria, he returned to Florence permanently. He worked
in the Refectory of the Benedictine monastery of Sant'Apollonia from 1445 to
1450, where he carried out several masterpieces: the Crucifixion, the Deposition,
the Resurrection and, above all, the Last Supper (perhaps his most famous and
powerful work).
Last Supper - detail
The severe seclusion of the monks prevented the series of frescoes from
being generally known to the public until 1860, when the convent was suppressed.
Other extremely important frescoes, now detached and preserved in Sant'Apollonia, once decorated Villa Pandolfini-Carducci
at Legnaia (1450).
He also carried out a series of frescoes for the Annunziata (after
1451) and the portrait of Niccoló da Tolentino in Santa
Maria del Fiore (1456).
Last Supper at St. Apollonia