Introduction: ‘Il primo huomo da dipingere in fresco, che sia in questi paesi’ : Bernardino Poccetti and the Historiography of Florentine Painting during the Late Renaissance

Abstract

Bernardino Barbatelli (called Poccetti, 1553–1612) was a successful fresco painter in late sixteenth-century Florence, yet he remains largely overlooked by contemporary scholarship. In addition to the obstacles posed by his prolific output and the inaccessibility of his monumental murals, this chapter examines historiographical reasons for Poccetti’s obscurity, exploring how shifting artistic styles and aesthetic tastes led early Seicento commentators to see the last half of the Florentine Cinquecento as a period of stagnation. This narrative was later reinforced by the preferences of nineteenth- and twentieth-century art historians, which reflected modernist ideas of artistic innovation and stylistic progression. Historical evidence shows, however, that Poccetti’s contemporaries valued his works as a continuation of an esteemed tradition of Florentine fresco painting.