TOSINI, Michele - b. 1503 Firenze, d. 1577 Firenze - WGA

TOSINI, Michele

(b. 1503 Firenze, d. 1577 Firenze)

Italian painter, known as Michele di Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio. He studied with Lorenzo di Credi and Antonio del Ceraiolo (fl 1520-38) before entering the workshop of Ridolfo Ghirlandaio. By 1525 he was frequently collaborating with Ghirlandaio, and their closeness is reflected in Tosini’s adopted name.

Tosini began painting in the early 16th-century Florentine style of Fra Bartolommeo and Andrea del Sarto (e.g. the Virgin of the Sacred Girdle, c. 1525; Florence, S Marco). His acceptance of Mannerism was slow, but by the 1540s the influence of Francesco Salviati and Agnolo Bronzino was observable in his work. After 1556 Tosini worked for Giorgio Vasari in the fresco decoration of the Salone dei Cinquecento in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence. Through Vasari’s example, Tosini adopted a vocabulary derived from the work of Michelangelo and painted some of his best-known works in this manner (e.g. Night, c. 1560; Rome, Galleria Colonna, and Leda, c. 1560; Rome, Galleria Borghese). He executed several important commissions late in his career: the fresco decoration of three city gates of Florence (1560s), the altar in the chapel at the Villa Caserotta (1561), near San Casciano Val di Pesa, and the paintings on the sides and back of the tabernacle of the high altar of S Maria della Quercia (1570), Viterbo. According to Vasari, Tosini headed a large workshop that executed numerous altarpieces and paintings.

Allegory of Fortitude

This bust-length painting of a woman in classical costume represents an allegory of Fortitude, one of the four cardinal virtues. She is identified by her two most common attributes, the column which she grasps with both hands, and the lion, whose head is emblazoned on a decorative clasp at her chest.

In the representation of Fortitude, Tosini followed Renaissance iconography developed by, among others, Botticelli, whose Fortitude from c. 1470 influenced generations of Florentine artists such as Tosini.

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Holy Family with St Elizabeth and the Young St John the Baptist

The creation of devotional paintings for his Florentine clientele was his speciality and Tosini would often repeat his most successful compositions, altering certain elements. This painting is an example of his most refined Madonna and Child compositions.

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Holy Family with St Elizabeth and the Young St John the Baptist (detail)

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Lucretia

Lucretia, the virtuous wife of Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, committed suicide, as she could not endure the shame of being raped by Sextus Tarquinius, as Livy related. This deed secured the legendary Roman lady a place in the series of exemplary females that in European painting, particularly in court circles, were depicted as examples of virtue.

The marked influence of Michelangelo can be observed in the figure’s contrapposto pose.

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The Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand

Tosini, who entered in the workshop of Ridolfo Ghirlandaio, frequently collaborated with Ridolfo. The continuing practice of Ridolfo and his workshop, with their familiar, legible, definitive style of unmistakable force and charm, in many later altarpieces produced after 1550, like The Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand, was the key to their success and ensured the unwavering popularity of this fundamentally predictable but proven style until the end of the century.

This painting is the result of a collaboration of Michele Tosini and Ridolfo Ghirlandaio.

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