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Lot Essay
Born in Florence in 1535, Giovanni Battista Naldini entered the workshop of Jacopo Pontormo in 1549. The influence of Pontormo, in whose studio Naldini remained until 1556, is apparent especially in the early stages of his career, although Naldini eventually forged his own highly individual style incorporating the ideals of other great artists of the Cinquecento, such as Andrea del Sarto, Agnolo Bronzino, and Giorgio Vasari. After Pontormo's death in 1557, Naldini made his first trip to Rome, but returned to Florence in 1562 when he was recruited by Vasari to work in the Palazzo Vecchio on Francesco I de' Medici's studiolo and on the Sala dei Cinquecento.
Among Naldini's numerous patrons in Florence, the Medici were perhaps the most important, and his mysterious and alluring works for Francesco's studiolo, the Allegory of Dreams and Gathering of Ambergris, both painted 1570-1571, are among the most inspired of his oeuvre. In the late 1570s, Naldini returned to Rome, where he collaborated with Giovanni Balducci on several commissions, including frescoes depicting The Life of Saint John the Baptist in the Altoviti Chapel in Santa Trinità dei Monti. A founding member of the Accademia del Disegno in Florence in 1563, Naldini remained active in the organization after his return around 1580 to Florence, where his many pupils included Francesco Curradi (1570-1661) and Domenico Passignano (1559-1638).
Datable to the early 1570s, around the time of his works for the studiolo, the present Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist reveals Naldini's fully mature style, with its smoky palette dominated by cool greens and warm reds and yellows, distinctive facial types, dramatic lighting, and inclusion of small, highly animated background figures. While the figural typologies are inspired by Vasari, the composition recalls the models of the High Renaissance masters Raphael and especially Andrea del Sarto, whose influence is also apparent in the warm intimacy of feeling and the sfumato which softens the forms.
We are grateful to Professor Louis A. Waldman for confirming the attribution to Naldini, as well as the proposed dating to the early 1570s, on the basis of photographs (private communication, 26 October 2013).
Among Naldini's numerous patrons in Florence, the Medici were perhaps the most important, and his mysterious and alluring works for Francesco's studiolo, the Allegory of Dreams and Gathering of Ambergris, both painted 1570-1571, are among the most inspired of his oeuvre. In the late 1570s, Naldini returned to Rome, where he collaborated with Giovanni Balducci on several commissions, including frescoes depicting The Life of Saint John the Baptist in the Altoviti Chapel in Santa Trinità dei Monti. A founding member of the Accademia del Disegno in Florence in 1563, Naldini remained active in the organization after his return around 1580 to Florence, where his many pupils included Francesco Curradi (1570-1661) and Domenico Passignano (1559-1638).
Datable to the early 1570s, around the time of his works for the studiolo, the present Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist reveals Naldini's fully mature style, with its smoky palette dominated by cool greens and warm reds and yellows, distinctive facial types, dramatic lighting, and inclusion of small, highly animated background figures. While the figural typologies are inspired by Vasari, the composition recalls the models of the High Renaissance masters Raphael and especially Andrea del Sarto, whose influence is also apparent in the warm intimacy of feeling and the sfumato which softens the forms.
We are grateful to Professor Louis A. Waldman for confirming the attribution to Naldini, as well as the proposed dating to the early 1570s, on the basis of photographs (private communication, 26 October 2013).