ANDREA DA FIRENZE

(Andrea Bonaiuti; active 1346-1379)

   Florentine painter, best known for his frescos in the Guidalotti Chapel at Santa Maria Novella in Florence (1348-1355), which feature scenes of significance to the Dominicans who used the room as their chapter house. Andrea's Virgin and Child with Ten Saints, a panel at the National Gallery in London (c. 1460-1470), has also been associated with Santa Maria Novella, the seat of the Dominican Order in Florence, since all of the saints depicted, including Catherine, Thomas Aquinas, and Peter Martyr, were significant to these monks and all had altars dedicated to them in their church. The artist is documented in 1377 working on frescoes of the Life of St. Raynerius in the Campo Santo in Pisa.