Scope of Francesco Curradi known as Battiloro (1570/1661)

Scope of Francesco Curradi known as Battiloro (Florence, 1570/1661)
Annunciation
Oil on canvas, 42 x 36 cm - with frame 55.5 x 48 cm

Analyzing the pictorial quality of the canvas with the head of the Virgin together with the twin with the head of the Angel announcing, the hand of a recognizable artist can be found in the circle of Francesco Curradi. In the faces we can find peculiar characteristics of Curradi: the sweetness, the soft lines, the small mouth, the big shaded eyes, the pale chiaroscuro. The works show a high level executive quality, embellished by the rich gold finish of the halo that frames the characters' faces. Compare the Annunciation by Francesco Currandi which appeared on the antiques market and the faces of the Archangel and the Virgin preserved in the Convent of the S.ma Annunziata in Florence. This type of portrait is inspired by the well-known fresco of the Annunziata in Florence, painted around 1250 by the painter Bartolomeo, whose compositional model, and in particular the face of the Virgin, together with the pendant with that of the announcing Angel, have been repeatedly studied and taken up again in the following centuries, by some of the most famous painters in history: among the many masters who drew inspiration from it, we cite above all the Annunciations by Alessandro and Cristofano Allori (preserved respectively in the Tor de 'Specchi Monastery - Chapel of the choir - and in the Santa Lucia dei Magnoli in Florence, and the portraits of the Annunziata by Arsenio Marscagni. Before the sixteenth century the Madonna, part of the iconography of the Annunciation, that is, of the Gospel story of Luke, is hardly seen with the face turned towards the she is always careful to listen to the message, or to withdraw demure and fearful to the sudden heavenly appearance, or concentrated in the meditation of the Scri ture as it appears in all painting from the 15th century onwards, including the work of Fra Angelico. This iconographic difference tends to cease in the Renaissance, as in the present case. Son of Taddeo Curradi battiloro, Francesco, born in Florence in 1570, started to art in the workshop of the late mannerist Giovanni Battista Naldini, in collaboration with whom he performed the first works. Between 1616 and 1617 he was engaged with the most famous contemporary Florentine painters in the decoration of the Casa Buonarroti, where he made a canvas with the Fame that elevates Michelangelo above the other painters. Starting from these years he realizes his best known and most successful works, such as: the Preaching of San Francesco Saverio to the Indians for the Florentine church of San Giovannino degli Scolopi in 1622; in the same year the Narcissus at the source and Erminia among the shepherds commissioned by Cardinal Carlo de 'Medici. Curradi was the most representative exponent of Florentine devotional painting of the first half of the seventeenth century who interpreted with a style that was always recognizable for the immediate effectiveness of the compositions, the accurate design and the softness of chiaroscuro.