Desiderio da Settignano and the Workshop of Bernardo Rossellino

Abstract

Through a lack of documentary information, the training of Desiderio da Settignano and the artistic environment of his youth constitute a hiatus in the biography of the artist. A Portata al Catasto of 1451 designates Desiderio, as well as his father, Meo, and his brothers, Francesco and Geri, as “scharpellatori” by vocation.1 At this date Desiderio was either 22 or 19–20 years of age and soon to be independently established in his trade, for only two years later, on June 20, 1453, he matriculated in the Guild of the Maestri di Pietra e Legname.2 Nor are notices of Desiderio's works any more relevant to the period of his youth, since none of his works can be dated with certainty before 1460,3 four years prior to the date of his death.