MAZZA, Tommaso del
Italian painter, who has been identified as the anonymous master known as the Master of Saint Verdiana. Until recently, much of del Mazza’s work was attributed to the Master of Saint Verdiana, whose name derives from the inclusion of this figure in the altarpiece.
He worked in the late Gothic style at the dawn of the Renaissance in Florence and was influenced by the work of such masters as Agnolo Gaddi and Jacopo di Cione. In his early career, during the 1370s, he was active in the workshop of Andrea Orcagna, whose work featured gold backgrounds, attention to the picture’s surface, and brilliant colours. Showing no compulsion to render a scene in realistic detail, del Mazza allowed the needs of the theme and their inherent symbolism to determine his stylised approach to painting.
In the 1390s he became an independent artist.
