ORCAGNA, ANDREA (e.130S v.130'). The greatest Italian artist of the fourteenth century. excepting Giotto. llis real name was Andrea di Cione. and he was probably born about 1:308 at Florence. lie is supposed to have first studied in the workshop of his father, Clone, a famous goldsmith. and to have then passed to the studio of Andrea Pisano, then at work on the bronze baptistery gates. Perhaps he also studied with Giotto. but Pisano's in fluence upon his art was decisive. His master piece of sculpture is the tabernacle at Or San Michele (1359), the most beautiful product of Gothic sculpture in Italy: that of wall-painting, the "Paradise." in the Strozzi Chapel at Santa Maria Novella c that of mosaic-work. the facade of the Cathedral of Orvieto: that of tempera painting, the altar-piece in the Strozzi Palace at Florence. The "Last Judgment" and the "Inferno" in the Strozzi Chapel are inferior to the other part of the trilogy, the "Paradise." Oreagna is more spiritual in feeling and more sculpturesque in rendering than Giotto. and more
epic in his compositions. His figures are far more graceful and well proportioned. He mas tered tenderness as well as energy of expression, and in painting made great advances in per spective, and in the treatment of light and shadow in sculpture.
Modern study has shattered several of Vasari's and other ancient attributions to this master. It is known that he did not build the famous Loggia del Lanzi at Florence, or paint the "TriuuupI) of Death" and the "Last Judg ment" in the Campo Santo at Pisa. Orcagna's influence was great even beyond Tuscany. Con sult Vasari's Lircs in the edition annotated by Milonesi ( Florence, 1878-85), and in the Mash field translation (New York, 1S96); also, Crowe and Cavaleaselle's History of Painting in Italy (London. 1564-66) ; Marcel Reymond. "La sculp tor(' in Gazette its (1893-94) : Dobbcrt. in Dohme. Kunst and Kunst h•r Italiens (Leipzig, 1878).