Pietro Dandini Florence 1646 - 1712

Dandini was trained in Florence under his uncle Vincenzo Dandini (1607-1675), the brother of Cesare Dandini. He travelled to Rome, Venice, Emilia and Lombardy, and upon his return to Florence obtained many important commissions, notably from the Grand Ducal house. For Vittoria della Rovere he worked at Poggio Imperiale and the Palazzo Pitti, and for Cosimo III he painted frescoes for the Villa Petraia. His work, often in fresco and frequently on a large scale such as in the present work, employs a classicism inherited from Romanelli and Pietro da Cortona, but tempered with a free handling of paint and more pastel palette which anticipate the rococo. Baldinucci mentions him only briefly, but praises him for "una franchezza di pennello, quasi impareggiablile".¹

The iconographical scheme employed here is not clear, but may well, for example, have formed part of a larger scheme incorporating the Liberal Arts. Another Allegory of Painting is in a private collection.²

1. "A freshness of brush, almost without equal"; cited by G. Cantelli, Repertorio della pittura fiorentina del Seicento, Florence 1983, p. 60.
2. Exhibited in London, Royal Academy, and Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, Painting in Florence 1600-1700, 1979, no. 14, reproduced.