Buonamico Buffalmacco

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The Triumph of Death, attributed to Buonamico Buffalmacco

Buonamico Buffalmacco , actually Buonamico di Cristofano (* around 1262 in Florence , † around 1340 ibid) was an Italian painter of the Trecento in Florence.

Buffalmacco was initially treated as a rather legendary artist figure who appeared anecdotally in Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron (VIII. Days 3, 5, 9 and IX. Days 3 and 5) and in Franco Sacchetti's short stories. In 1450 the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti praised him in his Commentarii and Giorgio Vasari dedicated a detailed chapter to him in his Viten (editions 1550 and 1568), with partly erroneous attributions. According to Sacchetti (Novelle 191) he was a student and collaborator of the less important Florentine painter Andrea di Rico, known as Tafo . With the opening of his own painting workshop, according to Boccaccio, he worked for years with the painter Bruno di Giovanni .

Portrait of Buffalmacco from the Vite von Vasari, edition 1648

Around 1314–15, Buffalmacco and Bruno frescoed the monastery church of Fortezza da Basso near Florence, according to Vasari, with scenes from the life of Christ. Around 1320 Buffalmacco was called to Pisa to paint the nave in the Abbey of S. Paolo a Ripe d'Arno. Like most of his work, these frescoes have been lost.

The first secured work by his hand was not discovered until 1920: In the chapel chapel of the Badia Church in Florence, 4 of 12 murals with passion scenes from the years 1330–40 were preserved under a whitewash. As with Giotto, multicolored imitations of marble inlays in the style of cosmats frame his scenes. His powerful, naturalistic representation distinguishes him as a forerunner of the "International Gothic" painting, which was only practiced around 1400 .

Buffalmacco is the creator of the famous cycle of frescoes Triumph of Death , Judgment, Hell and Thebais in Camposanto in Pisa. In 1336 Buffalmacco is attested as a painter in Camposanto. In the past, these wall paintings were attributed to the Pisan painter Francesco Traini .

Joseph Victor von Scheffel Buffalmacco, in his epic poem, The Trumpeter of Säkkingen , a literary monument. About the secondary character of the “fresco painter Fludribus” it says: “So he's already painting two moons / In the dome roof Geviertraum / paints according to Buffalmaco's technique / Because he drank the red wine himself; / The compositions were / Elegant full of time awareness / And a graceful understanding. "

literature

Web links

Commons : Buonamico Buffalmacco  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lorenzo Ghiberti's Memoirs (I Commentarii). Translated into German for the first time by Julius Schlosser. Volume 1. Verlag Julius Bard, Berlin 1920 ( limited preview in Google book search); (= Biblioteca della Scienza Italiana. Vol. 17). Giunti, Florence 1998, ISBN 88-09-21280-0 .
  2. ↑ Camillo Sitte : About the history of perspective drawing s. In: Camillo Sitte: Writings on art theory and art history. Böhlau, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-205-78458-6 , p. 507 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  3. ↑ Joseph Victor von Scheffel: The trumpeter of Säkkingen . 200th edition. Adolf Bonz & Comp., Stuttgart 1892, p. 121 ( scan of the edition by MacMillan and Co., London 1903, p. 78, lines 97 ff.  - Internet Archive ).
personal data
SURNAME Buonamico Buffalmacco
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian painter
DATE OF BIRTH around 1262
PLACE OF BIRTH Florence
DATE OF DEATH around 1340
Place of death Florence