BALDINUCCI, FILIPPO. — Born in Florence in 1624, died in 1696.
A man of letters and an art enthusiast, he wrote Notizie de Professori del disegno da Cimabue in qua (6 vols., Florence 1681–1728; the last three, published posthumously, were edited by his son Francesco). The work, written in a sober and witty style that earned him admission to the Accademia della Crusca, is the first history of art conducted according to a method of modern philological criticism, both because the author drew upon authenticated documents and because he refuted information supplied by his predecessors and contemporaries, from Vasari to Bellori and Malvasia. For the art of the seventeenth century, B.’s work displays direct and scientifically evaluated information.
B. also wrote the most accurate biography of Bernini (1682), commissioned by Queen Cristina of Sweden; a life of Brunelleschi (published posthumously); and the treatise Cominciamento e progresso dell'arte d'intagliare in rame (1686). His Vocabolario toscano dell'arte del disegno (1681), the first attempt of its kind, is also of considerable importance. Artistic adviser to Cardinal Leopoldo de' Medici, B. was commissioned by him to arrange the Medici collection of drawings—which still constitutes the nucleus of the Gabinetto degli Uffizi—and printed a rare catalogue of it (Listra [sic] de' nomi de' pittori di mano de' quali si hanno disegni, Florence 1673). He was a passionate collector of drawings (about a thousand were sold to the Louvre in 1806), as well as an amateur draughtsman and painter.
NOTIZIE DE PROFESSORI DEL DISEGNO DA CIMABVE IN QVA.
By which it is shown how, and by whom, the fine arts of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, having freed themselves from the crudeness of the Greek and Gothic manners, were in those centuries restored to their ancient perfection.
W O R K
BY FILIPPO BALDINUCCI OF FLORENCE
D E D I C A T E D T O T H E M O S T S E R E N E
(phot. Enc. Catt.)
BALDINUCCI, FILIPPO. – Title page of the Notizie de professori del disegno, etc., Florence 1681.