Una proposta per Starnina disegnatore

The author reflects on the youthful phase of the Florentine painter Gherardo Starnina and his putative activity in Florence in the years around 1390, prior to his departure for Spain. In the absence of secure data for this period, the article seeks to recon- struct a profile of the artist through historical context, using this as a basis for new attributions. Two of the earliest known works accepted as by Starnina are compared with the most striking of the pen, ink and wash illustrations adorning Ms. Panciatichi 63 of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Florence, in a survey leading back to some cornerstones of Florentine painting of the late 1380s. This in turn prompts the attribution of the ink and wash figures to Starnina, also by comparison with the painter’s known illuminated manuscripts.