Lot 216: ATTRIBUTED TO GIOVANNI MARIA BUTTERI

FLORENCE 1540 - CIRCA 1606 PORTRAIT OF GIOVANNI DI PIERO BINI, HALF LENGTH, WEARING A BLACK DOUBLET AND HOLDING A DOG inscribed and dated along the upper edge: GIOVANNI DI PIERO BINI . 1588 oil on panel 88.5 by 68.5 cm.; 34 7/8 by 27 in.

Giovanni di Piero Bini was from a wealthy Florentine mercantile family. His father Piero owned the chapel in the church of Santo Spirito which holds Pierfrancesco di Jacopo Foschi's altarpiece of The Transfiguration. This portrait, which dates from the year of the sitter's death, would doubtless have formed part of a series of family portraits, all similarly inscribed with the sitters' identities, as is the case for the pendant of the present work which depicts Giovanni's brother Piero. The attribution to Butteri, one of the studiolo painters, was first proposed by Dott. Carlo Falciani (written communication to the present owner). The artist was a pupil of Agnolo Bronzino and assisted Alessandro Allori on numerous occasions. He is perhaps best known for his signed panel from 1572 depicting the Glassblower's Workshop for the wall dedicated to the element of fire in the studiolo of Francesco I de' Medici in Florence. For Dott. Falciani the careful description of the hair and moustache, which provide a jagged contrast to the sitter's smooth skin, are typical of Butteri's style and point to the influence of Alessandro Allori. The use of highlights on the sitter's forehead and in the white handkerchief he is holding are also typical of the Allorian idiom.