ANDREA DI NERIO - b. ~1340 Arezzo, d. ~1387 ?

Italian painter. Long known only through meagre documents, this founder of the 14th-century Aretine school of painting was identified through the discovery of his signature on an Annunciation panel (Museo Diocesano, Arezzo) probably painted for the Compagnia di Santissima Annunziata, Arezzo, in the 1350s. His authorship can now be established for a group of stylistically similar works formerly attributed to several hands, including the Master of the Vescovado and Spinello Aretino, who was doubtless Andrea’s pupil (and whose sculptor brother, Niccolò, married Andrea’s daughter, Rebecca).

Andrea’s most distinguished works, combining the influence of Pietro Lorenzetti, Maso di Banco, and Buffalmacco, include the poetic pair of predella panels with scenes from the Life of St John the Baptist (both Kunstmuseum, Bern) and the narrative frescoes in San Bartolomeo, Arezzo. His compositional clarity, incisive figure style and refined technique place him in the first rank of 14th-century Tuscan painters.