Baldovinetti, Alessio

Baldovinetti, Alessio, an distinguished Italian painter, was born at Florence in 1442. He took to painting against his father's desire, and studied with such diligence that he surpassed all his contemporaries in minuteness of detail. His principal extant works are a Nativity in the Church of the Annunziati; an Altar- piece, No.24, in the gallery of the Uffizi; and another, No. 2, in the gallery of ancient pictures in the Academy of Arts at Florence. The great work of his life was a series of frescos from the Old Test. in the chapel of the Gianfigliazzi family in the Church of Santa Trinity, containing many interesting contemporary portraits; but these were destroyed about 1760. He also designed a likeness of Dante for the Cathedral of Flolence in 1465. See Vasari, Lives of the Most Enminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (ed. Lemonnier), i-v, 101-107; Crowe and Cavalcaselle, History of Painting in Italy, ii, 372-381.