Villa di Pratolino

1598 · Museo del Firenze com'era, Florence

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The villa was built by Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany in part to please his Venetian mistress, the celebrated Bianca Capello. The designer of villa and gardens was his court architect Bernardo Buontalenti, who completed it in a single campaign that lasted from 1569 to 1581. It was mostly demolished in 1820.

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About the Artist

Giusto Utens

? – 1609

Giusto (Justus) Utens was a Flemish/Italian painter, the son of Pietro di Giovanni da Bruxelles. In 1599-1602, he made a pictorial record of all 14 Medici villas in lunette form for the third grand duke of Tuscany, Ferdinando I. He moved to Carrara about 1580, where he married, and where later he returned and died.

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