Baccio Baldini

Baldini, Baccio

LC control no.: n 82220762

(b ?1436; ? bur Florence, 12 Dec 1487).

Italian goldsmith and engraver. According to Vasari, he was a follower of Maso Finiguerra and engraved a series of 19 prints after designs by Botticelli. These illustrate an edition of Dante’s Divine Comedy published in 1481. A group of prints in the same Fine Manner style is attributed to Baldini. His designs incorporate figures and motifs derived from Botticelli, Piero Pollaiuolo and also German printmakers, such as the Master E.S. and Martin Schongauer, but particularly from Finiguerra. Baldini’s Fine Manner style developed from Finiguerra’s niello print technique; the rendering of spatial recession in the large Judgement Hall of Pilate (435?598 mm) suggests it was designed by Finiguerra. With the other prints, however, it shares the decorative quality and emphasis on pattern characteristic of Baldini.

Prints attributed to Baldini include the series of Planets (c. 1465), based on northern woodcuts, and a series of Prophets and Sibyls (early 1470s), as adapted from the characters in a mystery play; the exotic costumes reflect those worn in festival processions. Antonio Bettini’s Monte sancto di Dio (1477) includes three illustrations by Baldini. Finally, a number of circular prints showing scenes of love or hunting, intended to decorate the lids of gift boxes, are in Baldini’s late style, which is more delicate in its modelling. These are called ‘Otto Prints’ after a Hamburg collector.

Baldini was probably also a niellist and draughtsman; the niello pax Descent from the Cross (c. 1470–75; Rome, Vatican, Mus. Sacro Bib. Apostolica) is one example that has been attributed to him. The unfinished Florentine Picture Chronicle (c. 1470–75; London, BM), a book of pen-and-ink drawings, was originally attributed to Finiguerra but is now thought to be by Baldini and his shop. It was loosely based on the traditional scheme of a universal history, presented through figures selected from the Bible, ancient history and mythology. The technique and style of the drawings is closely related to the prints attributed to Baldini.

Bibliography

G. Vasari: Vite (1550, rev. 2/1568); ed. G. Milanesi (1878–85), iii, pp. 317–18; v, p. 396 ( OPENURL )

A. M. Hind: Early Italian Engraving, i (London, 1938), pp. 1, 9, 30, 76, 99, 135, 311 ( OPENURL )

J. G. Philips: Early Florentine Designers and Engravers, xxi (Cambridge, MA, 1955), pp. 42, 56, 80–81, 86–7 ( OPENURL )

Early Italian Engravings from the National Gallery of Art (exh. cat. by J. A. Levenson, K. Oberhuber and J. L. Sheehan, Washington, DC, N.G.A., 1973), pp. 13–39 ( OPENURL )

P. Dreyer: ‘Botticelli’s Series of Engravings “of 1481”’, Prt Q., i (1984), pp. 111–15 ( OPENURL )

D. Landau and P. Parshall: The Renaissance Print, 1470–1550 (Yale, 1994), pp. 67, 72–3, 76, 83, 89, 108, 162, 387, n. 26 ( OPENURL )

L. Whitaker: ‘Maso Finiguerra, Baccio Baldini and The Florentine Picture Chronicle’, Florentine Drawing at the Time of Lorenzo the Magnificent. Papers from a Colloquium Held at the Villa Spelman: Florence, 1992, pp. 181–96 ( OPENURL )

M. J. Zucker: Early Italian Masters, Part I (1997), 24 [XIII/i] of The Illustrated Bartsch, ed. W. Strauss (New York, 1978–) ( OPENURL )

L. Whitaker: ‘Maso Finiguerra and Early Florentine Printmaking’, Drawing 1400–1600: Invention and Innovation (Aldershot, 1998), pp. 45–71 ( OPENURL )

Lucy Whitaker