Cosimo, Piero di (Hist.)

An eccentric painter, one of the patrons of Nello's shop, who does not share Nello's admiration for Tito Melema. From the beginning he dislikes Tito Melema, suspecting him of concealing a cowardly and treacherous nature behind his bright face. He paints a picture of Bardo and Romola as "Oedipus and Antigone", and at Tito's request he paints the triptych decorated with the story of Bacchus and Ariadne, in which Tito has Romola lock up her brother's crucifix. For himself he paints a picture of Tito struck by fear, completing it by adding the picture of Baldassarre Calvo after he has seen the latter clutch Tito on the steps of the Duomo. Piero di Lorenzo, called Cosimo from his master, Cosimo Rosselli (1441-1521); a Florentine painter of an eccentric and cynical nature, who painted many fanciful paintings, For the account of him which George Eliot evidently used see Vasari, Lives. Vasari gives his date of birth as 1441, but some other authorities give 1462.

<em>Romola</em>

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