Orcagna (Andrea di Cione)
painter, mosaicist, sculptor, architect, and poet; b. about 1308 (Vasari); d. about 1369.
The name Orcagna is an abbreviation for Arcagnuolo. Orcagna is, after Giotto, the greatest Florentine master of the fourteenth century. He was, according to Vasari, a pupil of Andrea Pisano, and doubtless came directly under the influence of Giotto. In 1368 he appears as a member of the Compagnia di San Luca. In 1357 Orcagna competed unsuccessfully with Francesco Talenti for the capitals of the piers at the Duomo, Florence. In the same year he finished the frescoes, including the paradise, of the Strozzi chapel at S. Maria Novella, Florence. Between 1349 and 1359 he was capomaestro of Or S. Michele, Florence, and executed the only work of architecture and sculpture which can with certainty be ascribed to him, the tabernacle constructed to contain a miracle-working picture ascribed by Milanesi to Bernardo Daddi. The balustrade was added in 1366 by the goldsmith Piero di Migliore. Orcagna was called in 1359 to Orvieto, where he worked on the mosaics of the façade of the Duomo until September 12, 1362. Vasari probably confuses Andrea di Cione with Benci di Cione when he ascribes the Loggia dei Lanzi to Orcagna. (See Talenti, Simone.) Orcagna died seven or eight years before this building was begun.
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