MACCHIETTI, Girolamo

(b. ~1535 ?, d. 1592 Firenze)

Girolamo di Francesco di Mariotto Macchietti (Girolamo del Crocifissaio), Italian Mannerist painter. He trained in Florence with Michele Tosini, whose studio he left c. 1556 to work for six years under Vasari on the redecoration of the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence; there he was apparently employed as a designer of tapestries. This was followed by two years of study in Rome. By 1563 he had returned to Florence, where he became a member of the newly founded Accademia del Disegno. Under the academy’s auspices he collaborated in 1564 with his friend Mirabello Cavalori on a grisaille painting of Lorenzo de’ Medici Receiving Michelangelo (untraced) for the catafalque of Michelangelo’s funeral in S Lorenzo, Florence. For the academy’s next major project, the decorations for Duke Francesco I de’ Medici’s wedding in 1565 to Joanna of Austria (1547-78), Macchietti contributed a monochrome painting of the Establishment of the Monastery of Monte Oliveto Maggiore (untraced) towards a festive ‘Arch of Religion’.

He participated in the Vasari-directed decoration of the Studiolo of Francesco I with two canvases, one relating a Jason and Medea (1570) and the other a Baths at Pozzuoli (1572). He also painted an altarpiece on the Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence for Santa Maria Novella. In 1577, he completed a Gloria di San Lorenzo for Empoli Cathedral. He traveled to Rome and spent two years in Spain (1587-1589). No works are recorded from these travels.

Baths at Pozzuoli

The Studiolo is a tiny chamber in the Palazzo dei Priori (Palazzo Vecchio), accessible by a hidden spiral staircase. It was dedicated to the geological, mineralogical and alchemical interest of Francesco I de’ Medici, son and successor of Cosimo I. Its walls are lined with two tiers of oil paintings on slate or panel that act as doors for cupboards containing Francesco’s scientific books, specimens, and instruments.

Girolamo Macchietti’s contribution to the decoration of the Studiolo in the Palazzo Vecchio included the Baths at Pozzuoli. In the Studiolo, he was assigned a subject from daily life, to which his only possible addition appears to be the architectural setting, a severe Tuscan order. One can hardly expect that these hot-spring baths, not far from Naples, were set in architecture of such grandeur, and most likely Macchietti had never seen them. He could, however, have studied and sketched in the Florentine public bath, as did Leonardo and Michelangelo, and the resemblances between the youth reclining on the steps and the seated figure having his leg toweled and their counterparts in Michelangelo’s Battle of Cascina) are due not to imitation but to the fact that such poses could be seen daily in any public bath.

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Portrait of Bianca Cappello

Bianca Cappello (1548-1587) was the first lover and then second wife of Francesco I de’ Medici. She died only one day after the death of Francesco I, both from a malarial fever they had contracted together.

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