\paperw4260 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \qj \f1 \fs24 \b Piero di Cosimo, called Piero di Lorenzo (1461-1521)\par
\b0 Information about Cosimo a painter from Florence,
is almost exclusively limited to the opinion of Vasari, who describes him as being of an abstract and deformed genius. An assistant to Cosimo Rosselli in the Sistine Chapel (1481-82) he was a peculiar character, excluded from the officers in the Medici
court. In some senses he well reflects the difficult passage from the 15th to the 16th century. An acute observer of the Flemish school of art, he was a well-known portrait painter and the originator of works of profane themes drawn from antiquity which
were successful in the Florentine world of painting.\par
