View of the Segretaria del Granduca

1777 · Villa Poggio Imperiale, Arcetri, Florence

interior

Of all the Medici villas in the environs of Florence, Poggio Imperiale has the most imposing site and is also closest to the Palazzo Pitti, which became the official residence of the grand dukes in 1561. The property came into the possession of Cosimo I de' Medici in 1565. From 1618 Maria Magdalena of Austria, the wife of Cosimo II de' Medici invested a great sum on improvements made under the direction of Giulio Parigi.

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About the Artist

Giuseppe Antonio Fabbrini

1740 – 1795

Italian painter. There are known frescoes by him in on the vault of the nave of he church in the monastery of Vallombrosa. In 1780 he painted an Assumption of the Virgin on the polygonal cupola in the same church. Between 1771 and 1774 he was a pupil of Anton Raphael Mengs in Rome, and under his influence he adopted the Neoclassical style that had captivated the Florentine court after Meng's sojourns in Rome in 1770-71 and 1773-74. In Rome Fabbrini won third prize in a competition of the Accademia San Luca. In 1777 Fabbrini painted the Segretaria del Granduca in the Villa Poggio Imperiale near Florence. With his monumental painting here, Fabbrini was a precursor of a new, austere style that would become established in Florence in the following decades. Between 1791 and 1792 he painted the frescoes on the two sides of the choir of the cathedral of Arezzo.

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