Holy Bishop

Cennino Cennini is best remembered as the author of Il Libro dell'Arte, the most important treatise on medieval painting technique, but he was also a practicing artist trained under Agnolo Gaddi in the Giottesque tradition. This depiction of an unidentified holy bishop reflects the standard devotional imagery commissioned for churches and private chapels in late fourteenth-century Tuscany. The work demonstrates the conservative Florentine style that Cennini both practiced and documented in his influential manual.

The panel exemplifies the tempera techniques Cennini himself described in Il Libro dell'Arte — egg tempera on gesso ground with burnished gold leaf. The bishop's mitre and vestments show the careful layered modeling from dark to light (verdaccio underpaint) that Cennini prescribed for painting drapery.