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BUTTERI, Giovanni Maria - b. ~1540 Firenze, d. ~1606 Firenze - WGA

BUTTERI, Giovanni Maria

(b. ~1540 Firenze, d. ~1606 Firenze)

Italian painter. After he trained under Agnolo Bronzino (as did his brother, Cresci Butteri; fl 1551-89), in 1564 he entered the newly founded Accademia del Disegno in Florence, in which he was very active. He worked mainly in Florence and for the Medici on commissions for paintings, decorations for buildings and court occasions (many untraced); these included Michelangelo the Poet with Apollo and the Muses for the funeral of the artist (1564) and Poets and Writers for the wedding (1565) of Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici’s son Francesco (later Francesco I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany) and Joanna of Austria (1547-78). For the studiolo (Florence, Palazzo Vecchio) of Francesco I de’ Medici he painted (1570-71) Aeneas Arriving in Italy and the Glassblowers’ Workshop. He worked on a number of commissions under the supervision of another Bronzino protégé, Alessandro Allori, including decorations for the Villa Medici at Poggio a Caiano (1579-82), for the first corridor of the Galleria degli Uffizi (1581) in Florence and for the wedding of Grand Duke Ferdinand I de’ Medici and Christine of Lorraine (1589), as well as cartoons (1590s) for the Arazzeria Medicea or tapestry works.

Numerous portraits by Butteri are documented: Bianca Cappello (Arezzo, Museo Casa Vasari); the Virgin and Child with Saints (1575), which contains portraits of Eleonora de’ Medici, Cosimo I de’ Medici and their sons; and Simone Corsi, Luocotenente of the Accademia del Disegno (1596; both Florence). Other works include the decoration (1578-81), with Allori, of the Palazzo Salviati in Florence (now the Banca Toscana), the Christ and the Centurion (Florence, Santa Maria del Carmine), the Coronation of the Virgin (Florence, Santo Spirito), six frescoes (begun 1582) in the large cloister of S Maria Novella, Florence, and paintings at the Badia of Passignano (1581; in situ), the Miracle of St Giovanni Gualberto and the Trial of St Peter Igneus.

Butteri was a Tuscan Mannerist comparable to such other Bronzino followers as Allori. His paintings are characterized by bright diffused light, metallic colours and figures that show stylized forms and features deriving from Bronzino.

Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints
Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints by

Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints

The saints flankig the Virgin are St Jude, St Simon Zelotes and the young St John the Baptist. The painting is signed and dated 1586.

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Virgin and Child with St Anne and Members of the Medici Family as Saints
Virgin and Child with St Anne and Members of the Medici Family as Saints by

Virgin and Child with St Anne and Members of the Medici Family as Saints

This unusual painting portrays a Sacra Conversazione (Holy Conversation), in which members of the grand ducal family represent the various saints. This includes personages who had died some time earlier, such as Eleonora of Toledo who died in 1562, here portrayed as the Virgin, or St Cosmas, interpreted by Grand Duke Cosimo I who died a year before the painting was undertaken. Others were still alive, such as Grand Duke Francesco I who succeeded his father in 1574, here seen as St George, Cardinal Ferdinando is St Damian, and their sister Isabella de’ Medici is St Catherine of Alexandria.

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