Sacra conversazione

Piero di Cosimo painted this sacra conversazione around 1480, during the early phase of his idiosyncratic career in Florence. Though best known for his fantastical mythological and primitivist scenes, Piero also produced conventional religious works that reveal his strong coloristic sensibility. His teacher was Cosimo Rosselli, but Piero quickly developed his own distinctive artistic personality. Piero di Cosimo was one of the most original and eccentric painters in late fifteenth-century Florence, developing a mythological imagination quite unlike any of his contemporaries.

Oil on panel with Piero di Cosimo's characteristic rich coloring and attention to atmospheric effects. The grouped figures show his early engagement with traditional Florentine devotional composition.