NASINI, Giuseppe Nicola - b. 1657 Castel del Piano, d. 1736 Siena

Italian painter and draughtsman. He was the son of the artist Francesco Nasini (1621-1695) and was responsible for the revival of Baroque painting in Siena at the end of the 17th century. Between 1681 and 1688 he attended the Accademia Fiorentina, Rome, sponsored by that institution’s founder, Cosimo III de’ Medici, who commissioned from him the Death of St Peter of Alcántara (1682; Montelupo Fiorentino, convent of the Ambrogiana), a work clearly influenced by Ciro Ferri, director of the Accademia and Nasini’s teacher.

In 1685-86 Nasini was in Siena and painted, assisted by his brother Antonio Nasini (1643-1715), the fresco on the Antiporta di Camollia, which he subsequently restored (1699; destroyed in 1944). A bozzetto survives by Antonio Nasini (Siena, Collection Chigi-Saracini); there is also a drawing (Paris, Louvre) by Giuseppe Nicola Nasini that is probably connected with the work’s restoration. In the autumn of 1686, after a brief stay in Bologna, Nasini went to Venice, where he remained until 1688. He drew inspiration from Venetian 16th-century painting and frescoed a chapel in the church of the Umiltà and a lunette depicting St Peter in Prison in the convent of San Giorgio (both destroyed).

In Florence, during the reign of Cosimo III de’ Medici, Nasini and Giuseppe Tonelli were commissioned to fresco an Allegory of the moral and religious virtues of the Medici for ceiling of the gallery of the Uffizi that overlooks the river Arno.

In 1691, he completed frescoes for the Compagnia di San Luca in the church of the Carmine, and two ceilings in the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi depicting Jupiter Subdues the Giants. He also frescoes for the Landi Chapel in the church of the Carmine. He painted a fresco of the Allegory of Reason(1694) for the palazzo Tolomei-Biffi.

In 1720, he returned to Rome, where he painted in the church of the Santi Apostoli, the Quirinal Palace, and one of the nave paintings in San Giovanni in Laterano. In Foligno, he painted a San Leonardo for the church of the Madonna del Pianto. For the Chapel of the Madonna inside the church of Santa Maria della Scala of Siena, he painted a series of paintings consisting of large canvases portraying scenes from the life of the Virgin, as well as frescoes depicting the Coronation of the Virgin.

Giuseppe’s brother, Antonio Nasini (1643-1715), son Apollonio Nasini (1692-1786), and cousin Tommaso Nasini (1663-1691) were also painters.

After purchasing in 1659 the Palazzo Medici from Ferdinando II de’ Medici by Gabriello Riccardi, a number of architects contributed to the remodeling of the palace which took thirty years. The most spectacular intervention into the original fabric was the construction, beginning in 1670, an east-west gallery wing. In 1676 the library was built directly beside the gallery. In 1684-89 another new wing was built to the north.

Anton Domenico Gabbiani painted three ceilings in the new rooms, the Allegory of the Fine Arts under the Protection of Wisdom and Nature; the Fall of Icarus; and the Triumph over Error. The painted decoration of two additional rooms complete the pictorial program of Gabbiani’s ceilings. The quadratura-framed ceilings of these rooms, depicting Hercules at the Crossroads, and Jupiter Subdues the Giants, were painted by Giuseppe Nicola Nasini and his cousin Tommaso Nasini. The concept behind this pictorial program is that virtues triumph over vice.