SANTI DI TITO (attr. a) Lot n° 1141

(Sansepolcro, 1536 - Florence, 1603) Portrait of a man Oil on panel, 117X87.5 cm The letter reads: Annus aetatis / suae 76 pinsi / p. anno domini 1583 /Florence, on the back bears a wax stamp of the Galerie Sedilmeter in Paris. The painting bears an attribution to Santi di Tito, whose training likely took place with Bronzino, who, according to Borghini, would have 'introduced him into the art of painting,' and to Baccio Bandinelli, from whom he had 'many avertimenti in the things of drawing' (Borghini, 1584, p. 619). These two paths of study, in fact, are discernible in the painter's production, determined to a style of refined beauty and at the same time accustomed to workshop practices. It is certain, however, that in 1558 when he fired the first documented work depicting the Adoration of the Magi Santi di Tito showed himself to be a full participant in the Florentine art of his time, and success was quite immediate as his Roman activity during the early 1560s attests. In the Eternal City, Santi frequented the Zuccaris, Federico Barocci and worked with them in the Casino of Pope Pius IV in the Vatican, proving original in language, clear and lively in compositions expressing in addition to bronze-like elegances Roman updates turned to the late Raphael and the interpretation given by Taddeo Zuccari. Another important journey faced by the painter was the Venetian one in 1570, which determined that sensitivity to the natural datum that characterized his mature production. A prominent place in Santi's career were the portraits, which he executed in large numbers 'with great ease and resembling the living' (Baldinucci, 1681-1728, 1846, p. 540), as confirmed by sources and citations in inventories and the works themselves. We can therefore say that the painter innovated the genre by combining the physiognomic truth with the sentimental and expressive liveliness of the characters, moving from the courtly register to the festive and affectionate one. Reference bibliography: R. Borghini, Il Riposo, Florence, 1584, pp. 106, 115 f., 187, 198, 205, 619-623 F. Baldinucci, Notizie dei professori del disegno (1681-1728), edited by F. Ranalli, II, Florence, 1846, pp. 534-554 A. Giannotti, Lo stile puro dei fiorentini da Andrea del Sarto a Santi di Tito, in Puro, semplice e naturale nell'arte a Firenze tra Cinque e Seicento, exhibition catalog edited by A. Giannotti, C. Pizzorusso, Florence, 2014, pp. 27; 55 C. Falciani, A. Natali, Il Cinquecento a Firenze: maniera moderna e controriforma, exhibition catalog, Florence, 2017, passim (in particular N. Bastogi, Scheda nn. III.5, VII.1, pp. 126, 234; C. Falciani, Scheda n. V.7, pp. 230-234