Agnolo di Domenico del Mazziere


Agnolo di Domenico del Mazziere, formerly Master of Santo Spirito, was an Italian painter and draughtsman of Renaissance art.

Attribution history

Initially there were a group of paintings attributed to an anonymous painter referred to as the "Master of Santo Spirito". In 1988 scholarship research identified two painters, Agnolo and his elder brother Donnino, as the correct authors of the paintings. They worked together in a workshop in Florence during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. There is some difficulty in precise attribution due to the collaborative nature of the brothers, but paintings originally assigned to "Master of Santo Spirito" have been variously attributed to Agnolo or to both.

Workshop

According to tax documents Donnino was the head of the workshop, which began sometime after 1480. Their style suggests that they may have apprenticed with Cosimo Rosselli. Agnola's mention in Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects as well as by Filippo Baldinucci, indicates that he was the more recognized and talented of the brothers. Agnolo was among a group of select artists to consult with Michelangelo for the Sistine Chapel ceiling between 1507 and 1508. 1490 through 1515 was a period of high activity in Florence and elsewhere in Tuscany for the workshop, where together with his brother they produced altarpieces and fresco decorations for a number of churches and the Florentine government. In 1509 they added Cosimo Rosselli's cousin Bernardo di Stefano Rosselli to the workshop.
One painting of the Mazziere studio was an altarpiece for the hospital church of Santa Lucia in Florence in 1490. Also attributed to them are the Enthroned Madonna and Child between Two Angels and Saints Lucy and Peter Martyr in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice.