( fl Florence, c. 1419–30). Italian painter. The artist was first identified by Pudelko (1938), who constructed a corpus around the Virgin and Child with Angels (Cleveland, OH, Mus. A.; see fig. ), the central panel of a dismembered triptych. The work is dated 1419, hence the name by which the Master is known. This corpus was not entirely coherent, however, and the artist was more clearly defined by Longhi (1940), who recognized that he was probably trained in the circle of Lorenzo Monaco, later absorbing the more conservative innovations of the Renaissance represented by Masolino. The triptych of St Julian Enthroned with Two Saints (San Gimignano, Mus. Civ.), originally in the Collegiata, can be dated to this phase in his development and shows an extremely precocious response in the 1420s to Masaccio’s early work, such as the S Giovenale Triptych (Reggello, S Giovenale in Cascia) and the Virgin and Child with St Anne and Angels (Florence, Uffizi), in its attempt to show the figures in perspective and to render their bodies volumetrically. Critics have emphasized the importance of the Master’s role in the development of the Late Gothic style in Florence and have suggested links with Rosello di Jacopo Franchi, Giovanni Toscani and also with some controversial works attributed to Paolo Uccello, such as the frescoed tabernacle of Lippi and Macia (Macia, Mater Dei).

Part of the Masters, anonymous, and monogrammists family

• 1419, Master of
  • Italy, §III, 3(ii)(a): Early Renaissance painting, c 1400–c 1500: Florence