Cecco Bravo was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 painter of the Florentine Baroque school. His true name is Francesco Montelatici.

Biography

He trained with Giovanni Biliverti

Giovanni Biliverti

Giovanni Biliverti was an Italian painter of the late-Mannerism and early-Baroque period, active mainly in his adoptive city of Florence, as well as Rome. His father had been born in was born at Maastricht. Also known as Giovanni Biliverti. He was the son of the Flemish painter in Florence,...

 and was also close to Sigismondo Coccapani

Sigismondo Coccapani

Sigismondo Coccapani, an Italian painter, who was born at Florence in 1585. He at first studied literature and mathematics, but abandoned them for painting, and became a scholar of Cigoli. In 1610 he went to Italy, and after his return home gained considerable reputation both as a painter and an...

. In the early 1620s he worked in the studio of Matteo Rosselli

Matteo Rosselli

Matteo Rosselli was an Italian painter of the late Florentine Counter-Maniera and early Baroque. He is best known however for his highly-populated grand-manner historical paintings.-Biography:...

.

By 1629, he had his own independent studio. His first recorded work is a fresco of the Virgin, St John & Angels (c. 1628/9; San Marco, Florence

San Marco, Florence

San Marco is the name of a religious complex in Florence, Italy. It comprises a church and a convent. The convent, which is now a museum, has three claims to fame: during the 15th century it was home to two famous Dominicans, the painter Fra Angelico and the preacher, Girolamo Savonarola...

) and a painting of Charity (Annunziata of Florence

Basilica della Santissima Annunziata di Firenze

The Basilica della Santissima Annunziata is a Roman Catholic minor basilica in Florence, Italy, the mother church of the Servite order. It is located at the northeastern side of the Piazza Santissima Annunziata....

). In 1633, he painted six lunettes with scenes from the Life of the Blessed Bonaventura Bonaccorsi for the church of Santissima Annunziata in Pistoia

Pistoia

Pistoia is a city and comune in the Tuscany region of Italy, the capital of a province of the same name, located about 30 km west and north of Florence and is crossed by the Ombrone Pistoiese, a tributary of the River Arno.-History:...

, continuing a series begun in 1601 by Bernardino Poccetti

Bernardino Poccetti

Bernardino Poccetti , also known as Barbatelli, was an Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker in etching ....

. He painted a frieze depicting children’s Games and stories from Orlando Furioso

Orlando Furioso

Orlando Furioso is an Italian epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto which has exerted a wide influence on later culture. The earliest version appeared in 1516, although the poem was not published in its complete form until 1532...

 (c. 1631) for Villa Corsini a Mezzomonte in Impruneta

Impruneta

Impruneta is a town and comune of the province of Florence in the Italian region of Tuscany. The population is about 15,000.-Name and production:...

.

He was commissioned to decorate the library in the Casa Buonarroti

Casa Buonarroti

Casa Buonarroti is a museum in Florence. The building was a property owned by the sculptor Michelangelo, which he left to his nephew, Lionardo Buonarroti. The house was converted into a museum dedicated to the artist by his great nephew, Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger...

 of Florence. After his depiction of Fame on the ceiling of the library, he became disenchanted with the patron’s excessive instructions, and the panels of illustrious Florentines on the walls were completed by others, including Domenico Puligo

Domenico Puligo

Domenico Puligo was an Italian painter of the Renaissance, active in Florence. His real name was Domenico di Bartolommeo Ubaldini....

 and Matteo Rosselli

Matteo Rosselli

Matteo Rosselli was an Italian painter of the late Florentine Counter-Maniera and early Baroque. He is best known however for his highly-populated grand-manner historical paintings.-Biography:...

 (1636)http://www.casabuonarroti.it/english/rooms/e-studio.htm. He was commissioned to complete work initiated by Giovanni da San Giovanni

Giovanni da San Giovanni

Giovanni da San Giovanni , also known as Giovanni Mannozzi, was an Italian painter of the early Baroque period.-Biography:...

 (who died after starting) for the Sala degli Argenti in Palazzo Pitti

Palazzo Pitti

The Palazzo Pitti , in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast mainly Renaissance palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio...

, in a commission shared with Ottavio Vannini

Ottavio Vannini

Ottavio Vannini was an Italian artist of the Baroque period, active mainly in Florence.Born in Florence to Michele Vannini. He initially apprenticed for four years with a mediocre painter by the name of Giovanni Battista Mercati, but he then trained in Rome under Anastasio Fuontebuoni. He...

 and Francesco Furini

Francesco Furini

Francesco Furini was an Italian Baroque painter of Florence.His early training was by Matteo Rosselli , though Furini is also described as influenced by Domenico Passignano and Giovanni Biliverti . He befriended Giovanni da San Giovanni...

. This was commissioned in 1635 by Ferdinando II de' Medici prior to his marriage to the daughter of the Duke of Urbino. The frescoes were intended to celebrate Lorenzo de' Medici

Lorenzo de' Medici

Lorenzo de' Medici was an Italian statesman and de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic during the Italian Renaissance. Known as Lorenzo the Magnificent by contemporary Florentines, he was a diplomat, politician and patron of scholars, artists and poets...

. In the south wall, Bravo completed Lorenzo as messenger of peace.

Bravo was part of a team that frescoed quadri riportati on the walls the Oratorio dei Vanchetoni

Oratorio dei Vanchetoni

The Oratorio dei Vanchetoni or Oratory of the Vanchetoni is a prayer hall for the Arch-confraternity of San Francesco, in Florence, Tuscany, Italy....

. The oratory also contains paintings by frescoes by San Giovanni, Pietro Liberi

Pietro Liberi

Pietro Liberi was an Italian painter of the Baroque era, active mainly in Venice and the Veneto.Liberi was born in Padua, his earliest training was with Alessandro Varotari . He traveled extensively in Italy. During a voyage to Istanbul, he was captured into bondage for 8 months by pirates from...

 and Baldassare Franceschini

Baldassare Franceschini

thumb|Portrait of Cardinal [[Gian Carlo de' Medici]].Baldassare Franceschini was an Italian late Baroque painter active mainly around Florence...

 (il Volterrano). A canvas by Bravo of the Aurora, a theme also depicted earlier by Guido Reni

Guido Reni

Guido Reni was an Italian painter of high-Baroque style.-Biography:Born in Bologna into a family of musicians, Guido Reni was the son of Daniele Reni and Ginevra de’ Pozzi. As a child of nine, he was apprenticed under the Bolognese studio of Denis Calvaert. Soon after, he was joined in that...

, is at the Palazzo Montecitorio

Palazzo Montecitorio

The Palazzo Montecitorio is a palace in Rome and the seat of the Italian Chamber of Deputies.- History :The building was originally designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini for the young Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi, nephew of Pope Gregory XV...

.

In 1659, Cecco was recommended by the Cardinal Leopoldo de' Medici

Leopoldo de' Medici

Leopoldo de' Medici was an Italian cardinal, scholar, patron of the arts and Governor of Siena. He was the brother of Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.-Biography:...

 for a position as a court painter to Anna, wife of the archduke of Ferdinand Karl of the Tyrol

Tyrol (state)

Tyrol is a state or Bundesland, located in the west of Austria. It comprises the Austrian part of the historical region of Tyrol.The state is split into two parts–called North Tyrol and East Tyrol–by a -wide strip of land where the state of Salzburg borders directly on the Italian province of...

. He accepted and spent the last two years of his life in Innsbruck

Innsbruck

- Main sights :- Buildings :*Golden Roof*Kaiserliche Hofburg *Hofkirche with the cenotaph of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor*Altes Landhaus...

. One of his patrons was Filippo Baldinucci

Filippo Baldinucci

Filippo Baldinucci was an Italian art historian and biographer.-Life:Baldinucci is considered among the most significant Florentine biographers/historians of the artists and the arts of the Baroque period...

, but Bravo was not included in his biographies of Florentine artists.

Howard Hibbard contrasted the murky sensuality of the paintings of Pignoni

Simone Pignoni

Simone Pignoni was an Italian painter of the Baroque period.He apprenticed with Fabrizio Boschi, then with the more academic and puritanical Domenico Passignano, and finally with Francesco Furini. He is best known for painting in a style reminiscent of the morbidly sensual Furini. Reflective of...

, Furini and Bravo with the piety of Carlo Dolci

Carlo Dolci

Carlo Dolci was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in Florence, known for highly finished religious pictures, often repeated in many versions.-Biography:...

. But in addition, Bravo is one of the few Florentines to violate the crisp drawn edges of figures, and aim for a general bravura of effort, nearly becoming a pintore del tocco. Some attribute this to influences he encountered in Venice, for example Bernardo Strozzi

Bernardo Strozzi

Bernardo Strozzi was a prominent and prolific Italian Baroque painter born and active mainly in Genoa, and also active in Venice.-Biography:Strozzi was born in Genoa. He was probably not related to the other Strozzi family....

. Cecco Bravo influenced Felice Ficherelli

Felice Ficherelli

Felice Ficherelli was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, born in San Gimignano and active mainly in Tuscany. Among Ficherelli's early patrons was Conte Bardi, who persuaded Felice to move to Florence and to study with the painter Jacopo da Empoli. Empoli's influence is evident in the...

(il Riposo).