BUGIARDINI, Giuliano

Giuliano Bugiardini, following the teachings of the three great masters of his time, Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo (of whom he was a friend and assistant), developed a style not lacking in individual character, which is manifested here in the sharpness of the line and the use of plain, metallic colour tones.

Ferdinando III of Lorrain, Grand Duke of Tuscany, bought the picture in 1819 as a masterwork by Leonardo da Vinci, but the attribution has been soon after changed and it is still not certain: among the artists suggested there are Mariotto Albertinelli and Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio, besides Giuliano Bugiardini who is actually the author accepted. To the convent of Sant’Jacopo a Ripoli, represented on the right in the landscape, is due the surname of Nun given to the woman in the nineteenth century when the portrait of this unknown beauty was referred to as “Leonardo’s nun”. Under the left arch of the loggia it has been recognized the colonnade of the Ospedale di San Paolo, near the Santo Spirito’s church, without the bell-tower not yet completed around 1510.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 4 minutes):

Franz Schubert: Die Junge Nonne (The Young Nun) D 828

The encounter between the Christ Child and the infant St. John during the Holy Family’s return from Egypt was a popular theme in Florentine painting, undoubtedly because the Baptist was the patron saint of Florence.

In Bugiardini’s carefully articulated circular composition, St. John receives Christ’s blessing and reaches out to touch him in a dynamic gesture that intimately links the two cousins. Christ’s Passion is prefigured by John’s little reed cross and the inscription on its banner: Ecce Agnus Dei (Behold the Lamb of God).

Giuliano di Piero di Simone Bugiardini was active in Florence during the height of activity of that city’s Renaissance. He was a pupil of Domenico Ghirlandaio, the scion of official Florentine taste, and Piero di Cosimo, a representative of its more eccentric aspects. In his youth, he was an assistant to Fra Bartolommeo and Mariotto Albertinelli.

Bugiardini did not limit his artistic studies to painting, but was a pupil also of the sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni in the garden Academy sponsored by Lorenzo the Magnificent at the Medici villa at San Marco. It was there that he could have met Michelangelo, who became his lifelong friend. Michelangelo felt comfortable enough with Bugiardini to invite him to Rome in order to learn the art of painting buon fresco which Michelangelo needed in order to complete his commission to paint the Sistine ceiling. And it was Bugiardini who tended to the seriously ill Michelangelo in the summer and fall of 1531

The portrait represents Michelangelo at the age of 47.

The story of Tobit, a book from the Apocrypha, was a particularly popular text because it is devoted to the wanderings of a boy, Tobias, in search of a cure for the blindness of his father, Tobit. Throughout his journey, Tobias is protected by a guardian angel, Raphael, and accompanied by his faithful dog. As so many young Florentines were commercial travelers or apprentices, often at worrisome distances from home, their parents had sufficient grounds for concern. Tobias’ happy tale, along with its reassuring filial piety, was one they seldom tired of telling, whether in art or life.

Two grand, richly narrative friezelike images, known as ‘spalliere’ are ascribed to Bugiardini. The first panel shows, from left to right, Tobias taking leave of his parents, journeying with Raphael to catch the fish whose liver will cure Tobit, his engagement to Sarah, and their bridal night. The second panel presents Tobias leaving Sarah after a dance and banquet, his mother on a hilltop in the background.

The story of Tobit, a book from the Apocrypha, was a particularly popular text because it is devoted to the wanderings of a boy, Tobias, in search of a cure for the blindness of his father, Tobit. Throughout his journey, Tobias is protected by a guardian angel, Raphael, and accompanied by his faithful dog. As so many young Florentines were commercial travelers or apprentices, often at worrisome distances from home, their parents had sufficient grounds for concern. Tobias’ happy tale, along with its reassuring filial piety, was one they seldom tired of telling, whether in art or life.

Two grand, richly narrative friezelike images, known as ‘spalliere’ are ascribed to Bugiardini. The first panel shows, from left to right, Tobias taking leave of his parents, journeying with Raphael to catch the fish whose liver will cure Tobit, his engagement to Sarah, and their bridal night. The second panel presents Tobias leaving Sarah after a dance and banquet, his mother on a hilltop in the background.

This composition depicting the Madonna and Child before a landscape derives from Raphael.

Bugiardini was particularly successful in his works for private veneration, such as the present example, which show a mastery of invention and colour, and which are of a size and format suited to his artistic temperament and talents. Through this panel, Bugiardini displays an awareness of the paintings of Raphael, as well, of course, to his friend Michelangelo. The compositional device of the Madonna holding an open book is a direct reference to Michelangelo, specifically to his drawing of the Madonna del Silenzio in the collection of the Duke of Portland.

The attribution to Bugiardini is doubtful.