Vincenzo Tamagni (San Gimignano 1492-1516)

Gathering together Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio and Guido Cavalcanti, the great Tuscan poets, this sophisticated allegory of knowledge was likely executed by Tamagni as an emblem for a literary academy or for a book illustration. All four wear laurel wreaths, symbolic of literary achievement, and stand before a celestial globe, which also appears in Giorgio Vasari's painting The six Tuscan poets (Minneapolis Art Institute). A pupil of Sodoma, Tamagni worked with Raphael and Peruzzi in Rome.