Agnolo Bronzino

Agnolo Gaddi

Ambrogio Lorenzetti

Andreadi di Bonaiuto

Andrea del Castagno

Andrea del Sarto

Andrea di Bartolo

Andrea Mantegna

Antonello da Messina

Antonio del Pollaiuolo

Bartolo di Fredi

Bartolomeo di Giovanni

Benozzo Gozzoli

Benvenuto di Giovanni

Bernard Berenson

Bernardo Daddi

Bianca Cappello

Bicci di Lorenzo

Bonaventura Berlinghieri

Buonamico Buffalmacco

Byzantine art

Cimabue

Dante

Dietisalvi di Speme

Domenico Beccafumi

Domenico di Bartolo

Domenico di Michelino

Domenico veneziano

Donatello

Duccio di Buoninsegna

Eleonora da Toledo

Federico Zuccari

Filippino Lippi

Filippo Lippi

Fra Angelico

Fra Carnevale

Francesco di Giorgio Martini

Francesco Pesellino

Francesco Rosselli

Francia Bigio

Gentile da Fabriano

Gherarducci

Domenico Ghirlandaio

Giambologna

Giorgio Vasari

Giotto di bondone

Giovanni da Modena

Giovanni da San Giovanni

Giovanni di Francesco

Giovanni di Paolo

Giovanni Toscani

Girolamo di Benvenuto

Guidoccio Cozzarelli

Guido da Siena

Il Sodoma

Jacopo del Sellaio

Jacopo Pontormo

Lippo Memmi

Lippo Vanni

Lorenzo Ghiberti

Lorenzo Monaco

Lo Scheggia

Lo Spagna

Luca Signorelli

masaccio

masolino da panicale

master of monteoliveto

master of sain tfrancis

master of the osservanza

matteo di giovanni

memmo di filippuccio

neroccio di bartolomeo

niccolo di segna

paolo di giovanni fei

paolo ucello

perugino

piero della francesca

piero del pollaiolo

piero di cosimo

pietro aldi

pietro lorenzetti

pinturicchio

pontormo

sandro botticelli

sano di pietro

sassetta

simone martini

spinello aretino


taddeo di bartolo

taddeo gaddi

ugolino di nerio

vecchietta

 

             
 
The Marriage of Thetis and Perseus, c. 1490–1500, detail (left side). Panel of a cassone (wedding chest), Musée du Louvre, Paris
Travel guide for Tuscany
       
   

Bartolomeo di Giovanni

   
   

Bartolomeo di Giovanni, also known as Alunno di Domenico, was an early renaissance Italian painter of the Florentine School who was active from about 1480 until his death in 1501. He studied with and assisted Domenico Ghirlandaio, painting the predella of Ghirlandaio's Adoration of the Magi in the Ospedale degli Innocenti (Foundling Hospital) in Florence, in 1488. Bartolomeo di Giovanni also worked under the guidance of Sandro Botticelli.

This name Alunno di Domenico ('pupil of Domenico') was invented by Bernard Berenson for the Florentine painter to whom he ascribed most of the designs for Florentine woodcut book-illustrations of the late 15th century. This wholesale attribution has not won general acceptance, but the actual pupil and assistant of Domenico Ghirlandaio postulated by Berenson has been identified as Bartolomeo di Giovanni, who was commissioned to paint the predella of Ghirlandaio's Adoration of the Magi in the Spedale degli Innocenti (Foundling Hospital) in Florence, in 1488. He was most important and talented artist in Ghirlandaio's workshop, who had made an individual and pleasing impression in the fresco of the Sistine Chapel. He has an intense, almost biting Nordic style, and he anticipates the rapid and nervous manner of Piero di Cosimo.
He also worked under Botticelli's guidance.

[1] The two panels The wedding of Thetis and Peleus and The Procession of Thetis, illustrating colourful festivities at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, a popular mythological subject of love triumphing in the face of difficult circumstances, are displayed at the Musée du Louvre in Paris.

   
   

The wedding of Thetis and Peleus


Bartolomeo di Giovanni, The wedding of Thetis and Peleus, detail. Panel of a cassone (wedding chest), Louvre, Paris

The wedding of Thetis and Peleus, parents of Achilles, detail. Panel of a cassone (wedding chest), Musée du Louvre, Paris

 

 

The wedding of Thetis and Peleus shows gods, goddesses, nymphs and others processing to the house of the hero Peleus to celebrate his wedding to the beautiful sea-nymph Thetis. Thetis had many suitors, including several of the gods themselves, but when they learned of a prophecy that the son of Thetis would be greater than his father, the gods arranged that she should marry Peleus. Their son was to be Achilles, the greatest of the Greeks to fight at Troy.
The wedding of Thetis and Peleus probably adorned the front of a bridal chest, one of a pair. Its pendant was decorated with the Procession of Thetis.


The Procession of Thetis

Bartolomeo Di Giovanni, The Procession of Thetis, 1495, Musee du Louvre, Paris
   

 

 
Bartolomeo Di Giovanni, The Procession of Thetis, detail (left side), 1495, Musee du Louvre, Paris
   

 

 
Bartolomeo Di Giovanni, The Procession of Thetis, detail (right side), 1495, Musee du Louvre, Paris
   

 

 
Sandro Botticelli and Bartolomeo di Giovanni, La historia de Nastagio degli Onesti, 1483, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

In the 1480s Botticelli gained commissions from the families in high society. Increasingly they chose classical themes for the luxurious decoration of their town houses, but they also included some from contemporary literature. In order to be able to carry out his multiple commissions, Botticelli had to work together with other painters as well as members of his own workshop. The four panels conveying the Story of Nastagio degl Onesti, the eighth novel of the fifth day of Boccaccio's Decameron, were produced with the aid of Bartolomeo di Giovanni.
The Story of Nastagio degl Onesti is the story of Nastagio, a young man from Ravenna who was rejected by the daughter of Paolo Traversari and abandoned the city to settle on its outskirts. Nastagio degli Onesti, whose beloved initially refused to marry him, finally weds her after all. First of all, however, he must remind her of the eternal agony in hell of another merciless woman, one who had also refused marriage, her rejected lover had to pursue her until he had caught up with her, killed her, torn out her heart and intestines and fed them to his dogs.

In the second Panel, Nastagio runs away in fright after witnessing the scene, while the persecution begins again in the background. After his initial sense of repulsion, Nastagio decides to take advantage of the story and invites his beloved to come there for a meal with her family.

The third panel shows the guests' reaction to the events, and how Nastagio's beloved uses a maid to indicate that she is willing to marry him. The fourth panel depicts the wedding banquet.

The fourth painting naturally represents the woman saying sweetly: "In that case, I'll marry you", and we are present for the marriage of Dona Lucrezia Bini and Ugolino degli Onesti. A considerable contribution to the execution of this panel by Jacopo del Sellaio is assumed.
The fourth panel belongs to a private collection, the three others are kept in Madrid, Prado.

The paintings were commissioned in 1483 by Antonio Pucci for the marriage of his son, Giannozzo, with Lucrezia Bini. The coats of arms of both families flank those of the Medici on the third panel. Specialists see Botticelli's hand in the overall design and in certain figures. They also detect the participation of his assistants, Bartolomeo di Giovanni and Jacopo del Sellaio.

Art in Tuscany | Sandro Botticelli, The Story of Nastagio degl Onesti
 






 
   


Love and Marriage in Renaissance Florence: The Courtauld Wedding Chests, 12 February – 17 May 2009, The Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, Strand, London.

A marriage in 15th century Florence was not primarily about love or religion. Instead it was a dynastic alliance between powerful families.
To celebrate these marriages, pairs of great chests, lavishly decorated with precious metals and elaborate paintings, were commissioned. These items – now generally called cassoni – were often the most expensive of a whole suite of decorative objects commissioned to celebrate marriage alliances between powerful families. They were displayed in Florentine palaces and used to store precious items such as clothes and textiles.
The painted panels set into the wedding chests tell fascinating tales from ancient Greece, Rome and Palestine, as well as from Florentine literature and more recent history. These beautifully told stories were intended to entertain as well as to instruct husband and wife, their servants, children and visitors.

The exhibition Love and Marriage in Renaissance Florence: The Courtauld Wedding Chests is the first in the UK to explore this important and neglected art form of Renaissance Florence. The exhibition is focused around two of The Courtauld’s great treasures: the pair of chests ordered in 1472 by the Florentine Lorenzo Morelli to celebrate his marriage with Vaggia Nerli. These are the only pair of cassoni to be still displayed with their painted backboards (spalliere).The unusual survival of both the chests and their commissioning documents enables a full examination of this remarkable commission.
The Courtauld cassoni are displayed alongside other superb examples of chests and panels. Discover the stories behind these chests and gain rich insights into Florentine art and life at the height of the city’s glory.
Also on display are panels painted by Giovanni Toscani (act. 1423, d. 1430). One work depicts a story from Boccaccio's Decameron in three scenes.
The exhibition will reflect the extensive subject matter used in cassone painting. This included stories intended to divert and give pleasure to the husband and wife. But they often contained a strong moral message. For example, the pair of paintings by Giovanni Toscani reunited in the exhibition for the first time in over 150 years — represent a story from Boccaccio’s Decameron. For having accused Ginevra falsely of adultery, Ambrogiuolo was punished by being stung to death by bees. The stories chosen for other chests emphasised ideal virtues such as bravery, constancy, obedience and prudence; models which members of a patrician family might strive to emulate.

Art in Tuscany | Watch three short films about the exhibition


Virtu' d'Amore or Nuptial Art Exhibit, at La Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence
Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence | The virtues of love | Nuptial painting in XV century Florence
The bedroom was the fulcrum of the Renaissance home: the most intimate and protected place where the wedding was consumed, children were born, and one died. Spalliere/headboards like the so-called Cassone Adimari of the Galleria dell'Accademia, which occasions the exhibition, and the historiated panels of chests are extraordinary testimonies of the Florentine Renaissance home, high fashion, the celebration of festivities, the rituality that accompanied marriage, from engagement to the wife's entrance into her husband's house.
The exhibition, divided between the Horne Museum and the Galleria dell'Accademia, features over 40 artworks created in the 14th century. The paintings were all commissioned for weddings and designed as ornamentation for lavish furniture, such as chests and bedsteads, destined for the couple's new bedroom. As well as decoration, the paintings' chief purpose was to educate newly-weds on the duties of married couples, particularly the role of women within the home. Rather than the romantic ideal of marriage celebrated by modern Italian society, a sense of duty and obligation is often core to these paintings. The stories depict wedding ceremonies, sumptuous banquets and the exchange of rings between bride and groom, all part of the long journey towards marriage that involved an elaborate series of contacts and contracts driven by wealth and politics rather than love.
The artworks feature tales inspired by biblical stories, classical myths and "modern" authors such as Petrarch and Giovanni Boccaccio. A painting by Francesco Pesellino, for example, illustrates the famous Decameron tale of Griselda, whose patience and obedience to her husband's whims and tests were eventually rewarded.

Central place in the exhibition goes to a painting by Giovanni di Ser Giovanni Guidi, also known as Lo Scheggia. The artwork, which goes by the name of the Adimari Chest (Cassone Adimari), was designed as decoration for a bedstead and depicts an elaborate nuptial procession believed to be that of Boccaccio Adimari and Lisa Ricasoli in 1420. The Cassone Adimari is considered particularly unique for its meticulously elaborate costumes and the detailed panorama it offers of Florence's medieval streets.
Among the other artworks are two panels by Bartolomeo di Giovanni, illustrating colourful festivities at the Wedding of Peleus and Thetis, a popular mythological subject of love triumphing in the face of difficult circumstances.
The exhibition also gives visitors a unique opportunity to admire side-by-side four panels designed by Sandro Botticelli in 1475 to decorate two matching chests. The paintings, which depict episodes from the biblical Book of Esther, have been separated for centuries and are normally housed in separate collections in Ottawa, Rome and Florence.
Although many of these wedding artworks can still be enjoyed today, almost none of the furniture they were intended to decorate has survived. The original chest painted by Giovanni Toscani and depicting the Palio of San Giovanni celebration is therefore particularly rare.

Immagini Scaricabili | Download images


Cadogan, Jeanne K., Maestri toscani del Quattrocento: Lorenzo Monaco, Ghiberti, Paolo Uccello, Filippo Lippi, Pesellino, Andrea del Castagno, Ghirlandaio, Bartolomeo di Giovanni, Benozzo Gozzoli, Firenze, Istituto Alinari, 1980.

Pons, Nicoletta, Bartolomeo di Giovanni, collaboratore di Ghirlandaio e Botticelli, Firenze : Polistampa, 2004.

Garzelli, Annarosa, Il ricamo nella attività artistica di Pollaiolo, Botticelli, Bartolomeo di Giovanni, Firenze, Editrice Edam, 1973.


[1] Cassoni (singular cassone) is the name given to Italian Renaissance painted chests. In fifteenth-century Italy pairs of cassoni were often commissioned at the time of marriage. Cassoni were made throughout Italy. However, they were particularly associated with Tuscany and Florence. Painted chests were sometimes part of the procession which a bride made from her father's house to her new home with her husband and his family. They would contain her trousseau (dowry).
Cassoni were valuable possessions. They were generally displayed in a man's camera (chamber), one of the most important rooms in a house. These chests were decorated with paintings of popular stories. These were drawn from the most familiar literature of the day: including the works of the Italian poets Boccaccio, Petrarch and Dante, the Old Testament, and ancient Greek and Roman history. Paintings of ancient heroes like Scipio - who returned a beautiful female captive to her fiancé - told young husbands how to behave towards their wives. They were to treat them with respect, but the men were to remember that they were ultimately in control. Painted chests often stayed in families for generations. They were not just precious in themselves, but symbolised important marriage alliances.
Children could take their first lessons from cassoni . The pictures on their fronts were close to the ground - a perfect viewing height for children.
[2]

 



Holiday accomodation in Toscany | Podere Santa Pia
 
 
   

Podere Santa Pia, giardino
 
Podere Santa Pia
Florence, Duomo
         

Villa I Tatti
Spoleto
Villa di Geggiano

Monte Oliveto Maggiore abbey
Abbey of Sant 'Antimo
L'eremo di Montesiepi (the Hermitage of Montesiepi)