De Visitatie met de heilige Nicolaas en de heilige Antonius Abt
c. 1489-1490
Piero di Cosimo loved a good visual joke, and here he’s placed the holy meeting of Mary and Elizabeth right behind two grumpy scholars who couldn't care less! These foreground figures, Saints Nicholas and Anthony Abbot, are so engrossed in their reading and writing that they ignore the miraculous event happening just inches away. It’s a hilarious contrast between the divine and the deeply human. Piero was a famous eccentric in Renaissance Florence who preferred painting animals and landscapes to socializing, which explains the incredibly detailed, bustling world unfolding in the background behind the main figures.
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