Andrea Bonaiuto

Frescos de la Capilla de los Españoles, Exaltation of the Dominican Order (detail).

Frescos de la Capilla de los Españoles, Triumph of Saint Thomas (detail).

Andrea de Bonaiuto, also called Andrea Bonaiuti or Andrea of Florence, was an Italian painter who worked in Florence between 1343 and 1377.

Around 1365 he finished his most important work, the frescoes in the Chapter House of the church of Santa Maria Novella, dedicated to the greatest glory of the Dominican order. This room was renamed Chapel of the Spaniards from the 16th century because it was frequented by Leonor Álvarez de Toledo, Grand Duchess Consort of Tuscany and her entourage.

The artistic level of the paintings is not considered very high, but their vivacity and richness of detail have always aroused great interest. Giorgio Vasari attributed this work to Simone Martini and Taddeo Gaddi, and John Ruskin made them famous with his praise, but its correct attribution is due to the 19th-century art historian Giovan Battista Cavalcaselle. The weakness of the artist, who worked in parallel with Orcagna, is the lack of original motifs followed by an excessive repetition in the spread of colors and the details of the modeling, although the grandeur of the representation and the vivacity of the color, influenced by the Sienese School, especially by Bartolo di Fredi more than by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, arouse the admiration of the observer.

The left and right walls are covered by the most grandiose scenes, with the Exaltation of the Dominican Order on the right and the Triumph of Saint Thomas on the left.

Other works include the frescoes in the Camposanto de Pisa (1377), with three Stories of the Life of Saint Raniero. He is also credited with a triptych from the church of Santa Maria del Carmine, another work at the Historical Society of New York and, finally, according to the historian Berenson, certain paintings from the Galleria dell'Accademia and other museums.