Art: Luminous Messenger

One tends to imagine the history of Italian art as a formidable seamless block of marble, smoothed and polished by generations of research. In fact, its surface is pocked with holes left by artists whose names, but very little of whose work, survive. Next to nothing is known about their lives and personalities. One of these was Michel ino da Besozzo, who came from Pavia and became the leading artist in early 15th century Milan. Nearly all Michelino's work is lost, but most of what remains was recently bought by New York's Pierpont Morgan...

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