DOMENICO VENEZIANO, Italian painter of the Floren tine school (working 1438-61), probably Venetian by birth. Very little is known about him. He may have acquired the rudiments of art in Venice; his style was formed under the influence of Donatello, Masaccio and Fra Angelico. He is first heard of in a letter written to Pietro di Cosimo de Medici from Perugia on April 1, 1438, in which he asks for a recommendation. From 1439-45 he was working in Santa Maria Nuova in Florence in association with Piero della Francesca, who was his assistant, on frescoes no longer extant. He died in Florence on May 15,146i. The story told by Vasari that he was murdered by Andrea del Castagno, who wished to monopolize the secret of oil-painting, which Domenico Veneziano is said to have received from An tonello da Messina, is now completely disproved, since Castagno is known to have died four years earlier than his alleged victim. There are only two authentic works by the master extant. The most important of these is an altarpiece painted for the church of Santa Lucia de Bardi. The central panel, representing the "Virgin and Child Enthroned with Four Saints," is in the Uffizi gallery. It is signed "Opus Dominici De Venetiis." A fragment of the pre della of the same altarpiece with the "Martyrdom of St. Lucy" is in the Berlin museum. Two more fragments, representing the "Annunciation" and the "Miracle of St. Zenobius," were recently discovered in the Fitzwilliam museum at Cambridge. (Bequest of Prof. Fred. Fuller.) The other signed work by the artist is in the National Gallery, London, a "Madonna and Child Enthroned" on canvas transferred from fresco. The work is mentioned by Vasari as having been painted in the angle of two roads, the Canto de Carnesecchi. The painting has suffered much and is not in its original condition. A fresco representing John the Baptist and St. Francis in Santa Croce, Florence, is attributed to Domenico on stylistic e,vidence. All other attributions are problematical. Thus the series of women's profiles in the Berlin museum, the Mond collection, London, and the Poldi Pezzoli collection, Milan. (See J. P. Richter, Mond Collection II.) Domenico Veneziano was in Florence at the time when Uccello and Castagno were working on the solution of problems involved in the pictorial representation of form. His contribution lay in the sphere of colour. Coming from Venice, it was natural that he should be a colourist. His tones are silvery and luminous, and his shadows are lit up by the play of numerous reflections. According to Vasari he was an innovator in Florence as regards the oil medium which he is supposed to have used in his paints.
See Vasari, Vite (ed. Milanesi) ; Crowe and Cavalcaselle, History of Painting in Italy (edit. Douglas) ; B. Berenson, Florentine Painters (19o9) ; Schmarsow, Rcpert. f. Kunst w. XVI. (1893) ; L'Arte XV. 0912).