FIORENZO DI LORENZO (c. Italian painter of the Umbrian school, born at Perugia, where he was a member of the gild of painters, and in 1472 was elected decemvir of the city. On Dec. 9 of the same year he was commissioned to paint an altarpiece for Santa Maria Nuova; this work has been identified with a pentatych representing the "Madonna and Saints," now in the Pinacoteca of Perugia. It resembles in style Fiorenzo's only signed picture, dated 1487, which is also at the Pinacoteca, having been removed from S. Francesco al Prato. It represents St. Peter and St. Paul standing on either side of a niche, with the "Virgin and Angels" in the lunette. These are the only two authenticated pictures of the master extant. Recent art criticism has ascribed to him without sufficient reason some fifty pictures, differing widely in style ; of these only about a dozen can with any degree of certainty be given to him on stylistic evidence. Most of them are in the Pinacoteca of Perugia; very few can be found outside his native city. The Staedal Institute at Frankfurt possesses a fine "Madonna with Saints"; the London National Gallery por tions of a polyptych representing the "Madonna with Saints and Angels." In comparison with the work of his Umbrian predeces sors, Fiorenzo's style displays a marked advance in the definition of form. His drawing is vigorous and sure. His rendering of dra pery, with sinuous sharply defined folds, and of landscape with finely constructed river scenes and towns, recalls the art of Benozzo Gozzoli. It seems probable, therefore, that Fiorenzo derived his training indirectly from this great Florentine. He may have worked under Niccolo da Foligno, whose picture, dated 1458, at Deruta, the National Gallery Fiorenzo closely resembles both in style and arrangement. Following on the primitive art of Umbria it was one of Fiorenzo's merits to have introduced the ideas of the Florentine Renaissance to Perugia, and thereby to have prepared the way for the great age of Perugino and Pinto ricchio. Soon after 1475 Pintoricchio probably worked as an assistant in Fiorenzo's workshop; and to the co-operation of master and pupil may be ascribed the fine "Adoration of the Magi" in the Pinacoteca.
See Crowe and Cavalcaselle, History of Italian Painting; G. Morelli, Italian Masters in German Galleries (5883) ; J. C. Graham, The Problem of Fiorenzo di Lorenzo (1903) ; W. Bombe, Gesch. der Peruginer Malerei (1912) . (I. A. R.)