Note 187 — Chapter III · THE TUSCAN LINK

One only has to glance at the names of the well-known artists to see how common this use of nicknames was. We have Masaccio (the bad Thomas); Cronaca, whose real name was Pollajuolo; Domenico Bigordi, called Ghirlandajo; the iron-worker Niccolò Grossi, called Caparra; Antonio Allegri, called Correggio; Francesco Barbieri, known as Guercino; Alessandro Buonvicino, called Moretto da Brescia (the dark man from Brescia); Pietro Vanucci, Perugino; Andrea Vanucchi, del Sarto; Michelangelo Amerighi, nicknamed Caravaggio; Domenico Zampieri, styled Domenichino; and hundreds of others. No doubt the Buschetto architect of Pisa was only another instance; probably he had a shock head of hair and was nicknamed "the little bush."