BALDOVINETTI, ALESSIO (1427-1499), Florentine painter and restorer of the disused art of mosaic, was born on Oct. 14, 1427, and died on Aug. 29, 1499. He belonged to the group of scientific realists and naturalists in art which included Andrea del Castagno, Paolo Uccello and Domenico Veneziano, the influence of the last-named master being particularly evident in his work. Tradition says that he assisted in the decorations of the chapel of S. Egidio in Santa Maria Nuova. That he was commissioned to complete the series at a later date (1460) is certain. In 1462 Alessio was employed to paint the great fresco of the Annuncia tion in the cloister of the Annunziata, which still exists in ruined condition. His favourite method in wall-painting was to lay in his compositions in fresco and finish them a secco with a mixture of yolk of egg and liquid varnish. This, says Vasari, was with the view of protecting the painting from damp; but in course of time the parts executed with this vehicle scaled away, so that the great secret he hoped to have discovered turned out a failure. In 1463 he furnished a cartoon of the Nativity, which was executed in tar sia by Giuliano de Maiano in the sacristy of the Duomo, and still exists. From 1466 date the groups of four Evangelists and four Fathers of the Church in fresco, together with the Annunciation on an oblong panel, which still decorate the Portuguese chapel in the church of S. Miniato, and are given in error by Vasari to Pietro Pollaiuolo. A fresco of the risen Christ between angels inside a holy sepulchre in the chapel of the Rucellai family, also still exist ing, belongs to 1467. In 1471 Alessio undertook important works for the church of Sta. Trinita on the commission of Bongianni Gianfigliazzi. First, to paint an altar-piece of the Virgin and Child with six saints; this was finished in 1472 and is now in the Academy at Florence; next, a series of frescoes from the Old Testament which was to be completed according to contract with in five years, but actually remained on hand for fully 16. Only some defaced fragments of it now remain.
Meanwhile Alessio had been much occupied with other technical pursuits and researches apart from painting. He was regarded by his contemporaries as the one craftsman who had rediscovered and fully understood the long disused art of mosaic, and was em ployed accordingly between 1481 and 1483 to repair the mosaics over the door of the church of S. Miniato, as well as several of those both within and without the baptistery of the cathedral. See Vasari, ed. Milanesi, vol. ii.; Crowe-Cavalcaselle, Hist. of Paint ing in Italy, vol. ii.; Bernhard Berenson, Study and Criticism of Italian Art, 2nd series.