An Early Altarpiece by Lorenzo Monaco

* My research in Italy on Lorenzo Monaco was made possible by a Faculty Research Grant from the Horace H. Rackham Foundation of the University of Michigan.

Abstract

ALTHOUGH the mature works of Lorenzo Monaco offer the quintessential Florentine statement of the Florentine International Style, the early stages of his art emerge more particularly from the complex network of stylistic traditions of the waning Trecento. These are beginnings that are gaining definition only gradually, for a lack of documentation and a paucity of clearly attributable works continue to impede the study of Lorenzo's youthful career.¹ Thus, any single addition to his early oeuvre contributes significantly to a conception of his first artistic efforts, while the discovery even of several mature works would probably do little to enhance or alter our idea of his developed style.