( Originally Published 1955 )
Florentine painter who was one of the most
important followers of Giotto. He matriculated in the guild of doctors and apothecaries
in Florence some time before 1320 and was one of the founders of the Guild of St. Luke
in 1339. In 1335 he painted a Vision of St. Bernard (now lost) for the Palazzo Vecchio,
and in 1347 was paid for a Madonna for the Or San Michele which may be identified with a
painting that is still there. Documents suggest that he died in 1348, possibly of the
plague. Three signed paintings are extant: a Madonna of 1328 in the Uffizi, another of
1333/4 in the Academy, and a Crucifixion of 1348 in the Parry collection, Highnam Court,
Gloucester. On the basis of these works many other panels have been attributed to
Bernardo, as well as frescoes of the lives of St. Stephen and St. Lawrence (c.1330) in
the Pulci chapel of Santa Croce. Important among the panels are a Crucifixion in the
Louvre, a Coronation of the Virgin in Berlin; and a polyptych in the Uffizi. Although
Bernardo's style is based on that of Giotto, many of his works display a taste for
bright color and Gothic line that reveals strong Sienese influence, and particularly of
Ambrogio Lorenzetti.
