Rosso Fiorentino (Giovanni Battista di Jacopo), Angel Playing a Lute, 1521, Galleria degli Uffizi. Image and original data provided by SCALA, Florence/ART RESOURCE, N.Y.; artres.com; scalarchives.com; (c) 2006, SCALA, Florence/ART RESOURCE, N.Y.

Rosso Fiorentino (Giovanni Battista di Jacopo), Angel Playing a Lute; detail, 1521, Galleria degli Uffizi. Image and original data provided by SCALA, Florence/ART RESOURCE, N.Y.; artres.com; scalarchives.com; (c) 2006, SCALA, Florence/ART RESOURCE, N.Y.

Have you ever wondered why you rarely see the names of the greats from the Italian Renaissance reoccur in art history?  Why do we not see more than one artist with names such as Ghirlandaio, Masaccio, or Tintoretto? It’s because a lot of these were not really names, they were nicknames! Some, like Verrocchio (“true eye”), were flattering, while others, like Guercino (“squinter”), not so much.

Here’s a list of some of the most memorable names from the Renaissance and what they really mean:

  • Fra Angelico (born Guido di Pietro): “the angelic friar”
  • Federico Barocci (born Federico Fiori): Il baroccio is a two-wheel cart drawn by oxen (yes, we’re baffled by this one, too)
  • Bronzino (born Agnolo di Cosimo): “the bronze one,” presumably due to the color of his skin
  • Rosso Fiorentino (born Giovanni Battista di Jacopo): “red Florentine,” due to his red hair
  • Domenico Ghirlandaio (born Domenico di Tommaso di Currado di Doffo Bigordi): Il Ghirlandaio means “the garland-maker,” which referred to his father, who was famous for creating the metallic garland-like headdresses worn by Florentine women
  • Giorgione (born Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco): “big George”
  • Guercino (born Giovanni Francesco Barbieri): “squinter,” because he was cross-eyed
  • Masaccio (born Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone): humorous version of Maso (short for Tommaso), meaning “clumsy (or messy) Tom”
  • Masolino (born Tommaso di Cristoforo Fini): “little Tom”
  • Pinturicchio (born Bernardino di Betto): “little painter,” because he was short
  • Pisanello (born Antonio di Puccio Pisano): “the little Pisan”
  • Il Sodoma (born Giovanni Antonio Bazzi): “the Sodomite,” possibly the result of a joke, but Bazzi seems to have used the name with pride
  • Tintoretto (born Jacopo Comin): “little dyer,” because his father was a dyer (tintore)
  • Paolo Uccello (born Paolo di Dono): Uccello means “bird,” inspired by his fondness for painting birds
  • Andrea del Verrocchio (born Andrea di Michele di Francesco de’ Cioni): Verrocchio means “true eye,” inspired by his talent

The Artstor Digital Library offers tens of thousands of high quality images of the era’s art, architecture, and artifacts from authoritative sources around the globe, from collections such as Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Erich Lessing Culture and Fine Arts Archives, the Samuel H. Kress Collection, Scala Archives, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery in London, and many more.