Invenzione, disegno e fatica: two drawings by Giovambattista Naldini for an altarpiece in post-Tridentine Florence 1

This paper seeks to elucidate some of the features of the drawing practice of the Florentine painter Giovambattista Naldini (1537-1591), through discussion of two studies for the first altarpiece produced by the artist in his native city. Executed some three years after the final meetings of the Council of Trent, ² the painting (Figure 9.1), which features the gospel subject, the Way to Calvary or Christ Carrying the Cross, ³ is still in situ in the chapel to the left of the chancel in the Badia Fiorentina. ⁴ It is generally dated 1566 due to mention of a related bozzetto in a letter of that year from Vincenzo Borghini to Giorgio Vasari, ⁵ and reference to the panel in the 1568 edition of the latter's Lives of the Artists. ⁶ Both Vasari and Borghini were intimately associated with Naldini's early artistic development. ⁷