Fra Carnevale Before Florence

As the examples of Piero della Francesca, Giovanni Angelo, and Giovanni Boccati demonstrate, when, in 1445, Fra Carnevale set out for Florence, he was traveling a well-charted cultural path (although one not so heavily trafficked as it is today by art lovers following the "Piero della Francesca Trail" that, as in Fra Carnevale's day, runs from Florence through Arezzo and Sansepolcro to Urbino). As already noted, mention of Fra Carnevale first occurs among documents relating to the production of Filippo Lippi's landmark altarpiece of the Coronation of the Virgin, painted over a period of eight years—between 1439 and 1447—for the Benedictine convent of Sant'Ambrogio in Florence. On April 17, 1445, Fra Carnevale collected a payment for the altarpiece and ten days later, on April 27, another payment was made on Lippi's behalf to a porter for bringing from Urbino the belongings of Bartolomeo sta chollui. The epithet sta chollui—"is staying with him [Filippo Lippi]"—cannot help but remind us of Piero della Francesca in the workshop of Domenico Veneziano. Fra Carnevale's name recurs repeatedly in the convent's documents for a bit over a year, the last time on September 7, 1446. What his role in the workshop amounted to is a matter of surmise, but that he had a formal arrangement with Lippi is clear enough from the newly transcribed documents (for which, see the appendix by Andrea Di Lorenzo). More unspecified belongings (chose) were brought from Urbino in May and June; Lippi had to pay the taxes for importing these items and also bought his new disciple clothes "and other things": a tunic and some linen cloth ("per fattura d'una giornea e altre chose; per ghuarnello e altre chose").27

Yet, the relationship was not simply that of apprentice and master, for in November 1445 we find Fra Carnevale described as "dipintore et disciepolo di frate Philippo"—that is, someone who already enjoyed the independent status of a painter and had served his apprenticeship. From a document discovered by Franco Negroni and transcribed in this catalogue by Matteo Mazzalupi, we are able to suggest that prior to coming to Florence Fra Carnevale had served his apprenticeship with Antonio Alberti of Ferrara, who had established himself in Urbino at least as early as 1418 and died there sometime between July 1447 and November 1449. Antonio Alberti was no small-time, retardataire painter but a Late Gothic artist of notable (if unexceptional) talent, who left a significant body of work in Umbria (in Montone and Città di Castello) and in the Marches (in San Marino, Fossombrone, Talamello, and Urbino). The basis we have for associating Fra Carnevale with Antonio Alberti is an undated payment to the Ferrarese artist made through Fra Carnevale (the exact sort of task he performed repeatedly for Lippi in Florence). The payment was made by Don Sperandeo, a parish priest for whom Alberti painted a triptych in 1436.28 Fra Carnevale's apprenticeship is thus likely to have taken place in the 1430s, at a time when Alberti had in hand two commissions for institutions that were to be significant in Fra Carnevale's future career. The first was a cycle of frescoes in a chapel at the convent of San Domenico, where Fra Carnevale would take holy orders and where he would be involved with the building of a new portal facing the old palace of the Montefeltro dukes. Although undocumented, the surviving fresco fragments, recovered in 1964 and on deposit in the sacristy of the cathedral of Urbino, are unquestionably by Alberti and have been dated to between about 1437 and 1442.29 Illustrating episodes from the Story of the True Cross as well as events from the life of Saint Thomas the Apostle (see fig. 11) and of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, the frescoes are carried out in a lively, Late Gothic style that transforms the devout language of The Golden Legend into a display of courtly splendor, with every opportunity taken to introduce elaborately costumed bystanders and richly furnished settings. The other commission was for a large Crucifixion for the oratory of the Confraternità della Misericordia (Confraternity of Mercy) in Santa Maria della Bella, for which, in 1466, Fra Carnevale was to paint his masterpiece (see cat. 45a, b). Here again, even more explicitly than in the San Domenico cycle, Antonio Alberti took his inspiration from that most extraordinary of Late Gothic fresco cycles, the Story of Saint John the Baptist, painted by Lorenzo and Jacopo Salimbeni on the interior walls of the Oratorio di San Giovanni in Urbino (1412–16). These rainbow-colored, garrulous, wonderfully captivating works (see fig. 12) must have made a strong impression on the young Fra Carnevale and can, indeed, be seen to have set the stage for the secular, courtly tone still evident beneath the humanist Latin style he cultivated in his own paintings.