Andrea del Castagno

Timeline

1. c. 1421–1444Village of Castagno and Florence · FlorenceCastagno was born in the village of Castagno in the Mugello hills and went early to Florence to study painting. Around 1442 he traveled to Venice, painting mosaic-like frescoes in the dome of San Zaccaria that showed an early style of strong chiaroscuro and sculptural treatment of the body. Deeply influenced by Masaccio's revolution in perspective, he also studied Donatello's sculpture extensively, bringing three-dimensional volume to flat painting.
2. c. 1445–1451Convent of Sant'Apollonia, Florence · FlorenceBack in Florence, Castagno was commissioned by the Benedictines to paint the large fresco The Last Supper in the refectory of Sant'Apollonia. It uses precise linear perspective to create a strongly deep architectural space, with finely and forcefully rendered faces, especially that of Judas. Around the same time he painted a series of standing portraits of historical figures—including Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarch, and Fabrizio and Filippo Scolari—for a Uffizi-style palace, presented with sculptural solidity and individualized features.
3. 1451–1457Florence · FlorenceBetween 1451 and 1457 Castagno continued to receive major commissions in Florence, including fresco decoration for the chapel of the Hospital of San Egidio and several equestrian portraits (such as the design for the John Hawkwood equestrian monument). His style grew ever more marked by strong chiaroscuro and near-violent emotional expression, making him one of the most individual voices in Florentine painting. He died suddenly of plague on August 19, 1457, at only about thirty-six. Vasari's claim that 'he poisoned his fellow pupil Domenico Veneziano' has since been disproven, since Veneziano actually outlived Castagno by several years.