For several generations of art historians have been wondering who wrote the group portrait “Founders of the Florentine School”. The caption under the picture says that it shows: the artists Giotto and Uccello, the sculptor Donatello, the architect Brunelleschi and Antonio Manetti.
In the first edition of the “Biographies of Famous Painters” George Vasari attributed this picture to Masaccio. However, in the second edition of Lives, he “changes his testimony” and says that its author is Uccello. Vasari also believes that the person indicated in the picture as Antonio Manetti is Giovanni Manetti, a mathematician, a great friend of Uccello. About the existence of this group portrait, almost no one knew until 1847, when it was purchased by the Louvre. Since then, discussions have continued on who, when, and under what circumstances, the picture was written.
Some art critics share the point of view of the first edition of Vasariev’s “Biographies” and claim that the author of the portrait was Masaccio, while others are inclined to the fact that he wrote Uccello. Still others believe that the “founders of the Florentine school” in general were created not in the XV, but in the XVI century. The identification of the picture is complicated by its poor condition, and the inscriptions under it not only do not clarify, but even more confuse the matter, since it is completely unclear when and who made them.
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