Berlinghiero (Italian, before 1242)

d. 1242

Berlinghiero was first recorded in a Lucchese document of 1228 and mentioned as already dead by 1243. Crowe and Cavlcaselle's mistranslation of the document of 1228 (known only from a 1600s transcription) gave rise to the apparently mistaken assumption that Berlinghiero came from Milan and that his last name was Berlinghieri. These misconceptions persist despite the thorough review and corrected interpretation of the available sources published by Garrison (1951, I I ff.). Berlinghiero introduced Byzantine elements into the style of painting in Lucca which dominated that school during the first three-quarters of the 1200s and strongly influenced painting in Pisa and Florence. Attributions to Berlinghiero are based on his one signed work, a Crucifix, probably painted c. 1210-1220. Three sons were trained by Belinghiero and works by two of them, Bonaventura and Marco, are known.