Angel

This Umbrian painter worked in the city of Perugia, located between Florence and Assisi. Several artists from Florence visited the city during the mid-fifteenth century, and Fiorenzo’s painting also reflects their example. Approximately fifty pictures have been assigned to him. Although works of widely different character, they share a certain hardness in the surfaces of depicted fabrics as well as intense colourism and, in mature pieces such as ours, the influence of the Florentines Pollaiuolo and Verrocchio. Despite the varied derivations of his works, Fiorenzo holds an important place in the history of Umbrian painting, transitioning from the retardataire late-Gothic style that predominated in Perugia during his youth to the Renaissance manner of Perugino. Even in a gold-ground painting like Angel, detached from its original altarpiece, Fiorenzo conveys an intensity of feeling and spiritual elevation. The animation of the figure, fluttering drapery and energized ribbon recall the art of Pollaiuolo and suggest a dating of about 1480.