Santi di Tito (5 December 1536 – 25 July 1603) was one of the most influential and leading
Italian painters of the proto-
Baroque style – what is sometimes referred to as "Counter-Maniera" or
Counter-Mannerism.[2][3]
After returning to Florence in 1564, he joined the
Accademia del Disegno. He contributed two conventionally
Mannerist paintings for the Duke's study and laboratory, the
Studiolo of Francesco I in the
Palazzo Vecchio. This artistic project was partly overseen by
Giorgio Vasari. These paintings – the Sisters of Fetonte (Phaeton) and Hercules and Iole – like many of those in the
studiolo, are stylized and overcrowded.
Baldinucci recounts that Santi completely rejected the maniera of Bronzino, and embraced a classical Reformist and naturalistic style.[6] Santi went on to contribute a Sacra Conversazione for the
Ognissanti and painted two altarpieces for
Santa Croce in Florence: a crowded but monumental Resurrection (1570–74), and a creatively inspired and decorous Supper at Emmaus (1574).
Santi also painted a Resurrection of Lazarus for
Volterra Cathedral; a Madonna for
San Salvatore al Vescovo; a Burial of Christ for S. Giuseppe; a Baptism of Christ by St John for the Corsini palace,
Florence. Santi died in Florence on July 23, 1603.[7]
Santi's mature style is reflected in his masterpiece of the Vision of Saint Thomas Aquinas, also known as Saint Thomas Dedicating His Works to Christ located in the church of
San Marco in Florence. It expresses a simple, pious gesture that appeared to have been lost from the courtly sensibility of Italian painting since the days of
Raphael, while maintaining the brittle, demarcated colour that is classic of Tuscan works. The work has an earnest fervour lacking in his earlier mannerist works, which sometimes appear like a collection of posed statues over-painted with skin hues. This new contra-maniera style finds some echoes in the rising Bolognese Baroque style of the
Carracci.
Among his pupils were Ludovico
Cigoli, the leading painter of art Reform in late sixteenth and early seventeenth century Florence. Another pupil named
Francesco Mochi became a prominent sculptor in the
Baroque style and created, among other pieces, the colossal Saint Veronica, in the crossing of
St. Peter's Basilica in
Rome."[8]
^Santi di Tito.
"Holy Family". Musée Fesch. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
Sources
Bailey, Gauvin A. (2002). "Santi di Tito and the Florentine Academy: Solomon Building the Temple in the Capitolo of the Accademia del Disegno (1570-71)". Apollo: The International Magazine of Arts (480): 31–39.
ISSN0003-6536.