By Anne Leader
Italian painter and draughtsman Giuliano Bugiardini was born in Florence on 29 January 1475. He received his artistic training in the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio and also drew inspiration from Raphael, Franciabigio, Michelangelo, Fra Bartolommeo and his partner Mariotto Albertinelli, with whom Bugiardini collaborated in the first decade of the sixteenth century. Bugiardini joined the artist’s Compagnia di S. Luca in 1503, a testament to his place in the artistic world of early cinquecento Florence. Giorgio Vasari lists Bugiardini among the painters who went to Rome in 1508 to help Michelangelo (another student of Ghirlandaio) with the Sistine Ceiling project, though, according to the author, they were almost immediately sent home. Bugiardini continued to have a successful career in Florence, working also in Bologna in the 1520s.
Bugiardini’s well-preserved altarpiece, now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was possibly commissioned by Bindo Altoviti. Typical of High Renaissance painting, Bugiardini creates a believable space infused with light, showing the influence of Raphael and Fra Bartolommeo. Like Raphael, Bugiardini kept busy creating religious works and portraits.
The frame is the original one and was probably designed by the architect/woodworker Baccio d’Agnolo and painted by Andrea di Cosimo Feltrini. On the base of the pilasters are the arms of the Altoviti family.
Reference: “Bugiardini, Giuliano.“ Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press, http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T012127.
Adam and Eve, oil on canvas, ca. 1520. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bequest of Edward Fowles, 1971
Virgin and St Mary Magadelene with St John the Baptist, tempera and gold on wood, ca. 1510–15. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fletcher Fund, 1930; photo © The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Leonardo de’ Ginori, oil on panel, c. 1528. Washington, National Gallery of Art, Widener Collection, 1942.9.36.
Portrait of a Young Woman, oil on canvas, c. 1525. Washington, National Gallery of Art, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.31.
Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist, oil with traces of tempera, originally on panel, 1510/1512. Kansas City, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, William Rockhill Nelson Trust, 68-10.