Piero Di Cosimo Analysis

Piero di Cosimo was a painter from Florence, Italy, who lived from 1462 until 1522. The biography begins with a brief introduction of Piero’s early life and the beginning of his artistic craft under the care of Cosimo Rosselli, then detailing various artworks that he has done in the years he was alive until his passing. This depiction of his life illustrated how Piero’s art style had progressed and evolved as time moved forward, as each of his pieces brought out a new particular style to it. Vasari mentions this intriguing fact when addressing that, “he changed his manner almost for every work that he executed.” (652). Hearing that Piero was an expert at drawing from life, as well as taking inspiration from Leonardo da Vinci, it was obvious

He starts of by mentioning a few portraits that he had worked on in his younger years. One of the works that is described in great detail would be the panel he created for the Chapel of the Tedaldi. This piece was said to have contained beautiful and graceful elements that were praised, while also containing areas of terror. This came in the form of a dragon that is described as “monstrous and hideous” (Vasari, 655), to the viewers. Although this section of the panel was horrific, it was a section that was quite successful and catching to the eye. Vasari would follow this piece with another work that he had worked on for Francesco del Pugliese, which was much more of a calmer image depicting various stories that he would call fantastic. After this, Vasari introduces another painting, this time for Filippo Strozzi, that involved a monster figure yet again, but gave this work more of a sense of beauty. Unlike the earlier painting, Piero chose to empower the one who was in battle with the monster, giving a sense of hopefulness and strength, as opposed to the sense of powerlessness and vulnerability that a monster would normally give a person. I believe that the works of art that Vasari mentioned corresponds with the way that Piero would change how he were to execute these paintings, also corresponding with the way his own mental state was altering – with every painting, it seemed as if the strangeness of his personality spilled onto the