Mariotto Albertinelli is a leading exponent of the Florentine High Renaissance, characterized by a rich palette, simplified monumental forms and a delicacy of drawing especially noticeable in his depictions of the Madonna.
Mariotto di Biagio di Bindo Albertinelli is a leading exponent of the Florentine High Renaissance. He was born in Florence and worked there for his entire career, receiving his initial training from Cosimo Rosselli (1439–1507). He developed a style characterized by a rich palette, simplified monumental forms and a delicacy of drawing especially noticeable in his depictions of the Madonna. At the same time, Albertinelli has a sweetness which is reminiscent of his contemporary Perugino (1446–1523).
Mariotto’s most celebrated work is the Visitation of 1503 (Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence) but perhaps his greatest masterpiece is the Annunciation of 1510 (Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence), painted for the Duomo, which Sydney Freedberg considered “the first expression of dramatic style in the post-Michelangelesque phase of Florentine painting”. Albertinelli is very close in style to Fra Bartolommeo (1472–1517) with whom he collaborated, forming the highly successful Bottega di San Marco which operated from 1509–1513.
Selected artworks
Top 3 auction prices
2017
2019
2014
Books on Mariotto Albertinelli
Serena Padovani, ed., Fra’ Bartolomeo: L’eta di Savonarola e la Scuola di San Marco, exh. cat., Florence, 1996.
Ludovico Borgo, The Works of Mariotto Albertinelli, New York, 1970.
Giorgio Vasari, The Lives of the Artist, 1550, trans. Julia Conway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella, New York, 2009.