Orcagna, or Larcagnuolo

Orcagna, Or L'Arcagnuolo is the name by which ANDREA DI CIONE, a celebrated old Florentine artist, is generally known. He was painter, sculptor, and architect; was born at Florence in 1329, according to Vasari, or, according to other accounts, about 1315 or 1320, and was probably first instructed in art by his father, Cione, who was a celebrated goldsmith; from him he passed into the school of Andrea Pisano. He painted several works, together with his brother Bernardo, in the churches of Florence, and also in the Campo Santo at Pisa, where the Triumph of Death and the Last Judgment were by Andrea, and the Hell by Bernardo; the Last Judgment and the Hell are engraved by Lasinio on a single plate in his Pitture del Campo Santo di Pisa: Orcagna repeated them in Santa Croce at Florence; he had painted previously in the Strozzi chapel, in Santa Maria Novella, a picture of Hell from Dante's Inferno, in which he introduced the portraits of several of his enemies. As an architect he built the elegant Loggia de' Lanzi in the Piazza Granduca at Florence, which is still in perfect condition — it and its sculptures are engraved by Lasinio in Miaserini's Piazza del Granduca di Firenze, coni i suoi Monumenti. (Florence, 1830). He built also the church of the monastery of Or San Michele, and designed the celebrated tabernacle of the Virgin of that monastery. It is a high Gothic pyramidal altar to the Virgin, free on all sides, is built of white marble, and is richly ornamented with tigures and other sculptures. It is engraved in Richa's Notizie delle Chiese di Firenze, after a drawing by Andrea himself. Orcagna generally signed himself painter upon his sculptures, and sculptor upon his pictures. He was also a poet. He died at Florence, according to Vasari, in 1389, but according to Manni in 1375. Orcagua had excellent architectural taste, and has the credit of having ben the first in those ages to adopt the semicircular arch in preference to the pointed; but to this merit, if one, he is not entitled, though his elegant Loggia de Lanzi may have contributed greatly towards the subsequent popularity of that firm of the arch in Italy: Arnolfo di'Lapo, however, and other earlier architects, used the semicircular arch. Those, says Lanzi. who are fond of minute detail in minute thing's, may consult Baldinucci, Bottari, and Mlanni concerning Andrea di Cione; Rumohr, however, vas the first to show his real name, of which' Orcagna is a contraction — Lo Archagnuolo, Lo 'rchagnio, l'orchagno. In painting. Orcagna did not go beyond Giotto; in sculpture he was a worthy follower of the Pisani. His portrait, published in Vasari's work was taken from one of the figures of the apostles in the above-mentioned tabernacle of the Virgin, which is understood to be his own. See Vasari, Vite de' Pittori, etc., and the Notes to Schorn's German translation of Vasari; 'Rumor, Italienische 'Forschungen.