Andrea del Castagno

Andrea del Castagno was an Italian painter of the early Renaissance period, born in 1421 in Castagno, a village near Florence. He was initially trained as a goldsmith before starting his career as a painter in Florence. His early works show the influence of Masaccio's style, but he later developed his own distinctive style, characterized by strong contrasts of light and dark and dramatic use of perspective. Andrea del Castagno was particularly skilled in portraiture and is known for his realistic and psychologically insightful portraits. Some of his notable works include frescoes in the Church of Sant'Apollonia in Florence and a portrait of the condottiero Niccolò da Tolentino, now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. He died in 1457 in Florence, where he spent most of his career.