Piero di Cosimo

Piero di Cosimo (pyĕ`rō dē kô`zēmō), 1462–1521, Florentine painter, whose name was Piero di Lorenzo. He adopted the name of his master, Cosimo Rosselli, whom he accompanied to Rome in 1482 and assisted in the decorating of the Sistine Chapel. His religious works have charm, but more important are his animated mythological scenes. Commissioned by the Florentine Francesco Pugliese, he painted many works depicting the life of primitive man. Among these pictures are the Hunting Scene and the Return from the Hunt (both: Metropolitan Mus.); Discovery of Honey (Worcester Mus.); Discovery of Wine (Fogg Mus., Cambridge); and Vulcan and Aeolus (National Art Gall. of Canada, Ottawa). Other well-known works by Piero are the Death of Procris (National Gall., London) and Simonetta Vespucci (Chantilly). The influence of Leonardo da Vinci is evident in some of his work, including the Portrait of a Woman with a Rabbit (Yale Univ.).

Bibliography

See biography by R. L. Douglas (1946); S. J. Freedberg, Painting of the High Renaissance (1961).

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Piero di Cosimo

 orig. Piero di Lorenzo

(born 1462, Florence, Republic of Florence—died 1521, Florence) Italian painter. His name derives from that of his master, Cosimo Rosselli, whom he assisted on frescoes for the Sistine Chapel. His later mythological paintings exhibit a bizarre Romantic style. Many are filled with fantastic hybrid human-animal forms engaging in revels (The Discovery of Honey, c. 1500) or fights (Battle of the Centaurs and the Lapiths, c. 1500). His art reflects his eccentric personality. He belonged to no school of painting but borrowed from many artists, including Sandro Botticelli and Leonardo da Vinci.