By almost any measure Bernardino Barbatelli, called Poccetti, was a successful and sought after painter in late sixteenth-century Florence, but his works have remained largely overlooked. This study situates representative examples of his religious painting within their respective contexts to demonstrate how Poccetti and his patrons negotiated the increasingly fraught terrain of sacred painting in the period of religious reform. These case studies demonstrate how patrons ranging from the Dominicans to the Carthusians to prominent Florentine patricians relied on Poccetti’s skill in creating compelling narratives that reflected current concerns within the Catholic world. In the process, Poccetti invoked an august Florentine tradition of fresco painting, shaping it to better address the demands placed on religious imagery at the end of the Renaissance.

Douglas N. Dow is Associate Professor of Art History at Kansas State University, where he teaches courses on Renaissance and Baroque art. Co-editor of Visualizing the Past in Italian Renaissance Art, he is also the author of Apostolic Iconography and Florentine Confraternities in the Age of Reform. His other publications have appeared in edited volumes and peer-reviewed journals and focus on questions of historiography, style, and artistic reform in late sixteenth-century Florence.

List of Illustrations

List of Abbreviations

Acknowledgments

Introduction: ‘Il primo huomo da dipingere in fresco, che sia in questi paesi’: Bernardino Poccetti and the Historiography of Florentine Painting during the Late Renaissance

Chapter One: ‘Grandemente inclinato all’Arte del Disegno’: Filippo Baldinucci’s Biography of Bernardino Poccetti

Chapter Two: ‘Le prime cose lodevoli molto’: Bernardino Poccetti’s Early Work and the Frescoes from the Life of Saint Dominic in the Chiostro Grande, Santa Maria Novella

Chapter Three: ‘Locum ecclesiae designavit, quae Ioannis et uxoris pecunia extructa est’: Bernardino Poccetti and the Decoration of the Canigiani Chapel in Santa Felicita

Chapter Four: ‘Miracula et alia id genus’: Bernardino Poccetti’s Frescoes in the Church of San Lorenzo at the Certosa del Galluzzo

Chapter Five: ‘L’inventore di dipingere tutte le muraglie della nostra chiesa’: Bernardino Poccetti and the Sixteenth-Century Decoration of Santa Maria del Carmine

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index