Artist

(b. ca. 1420, Verona, d. ca. 1468, Rimini)

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Details

Italian medallist, architect, painter and illuminator. He came from a good Veronese family (his father was a doctor, two of his brothers were in the church and three others were merchants). He is first documented in 1441, when he was working in Venice as painter to Piero di Cosimo de' Medici illustrating Petrarch's Trionfi (untraced). Subsequently (1444-46), he worked as an illuminator for the Este court, under the direction of Giorgio d'Alemagna. None of his works from this period is known. He married Elisa Baldigara of Rimini and moved there by 1449. Sigismondo Malatesta, the lord of Rimini, employed de' Pasti on several projects, including the rebuilding of the church of San Francesco by Leon Battista Alberti. De' Pasti's name appears as 'architect' inside the Tempio Malatestiana, as the building is known, but the extent of his contribution is unclear. By 1454 he was referred to as 'noble' and was entrusted with responsibility for all architectural and artistic work within the state. This brought him into contact with Piero della Francesca, Leon Battista Alberti, Agostino di Duccio and many other artists working at the court. He was strongly influenced by Pisanello, who had made medals for Sigismondo in the mid-1440s. Sigismondo sent de' Pasti, as requested, to Turkey to take the portrait of Sultan Mehmed, but he was arrested as a spy by the Venetian authorities and imprisoned briefly. He was last referred to in May 1467, and had died by the middle of 1468. //

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Category	Artists
Artists by letter	P
Artist nationality	Italian