ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the notion of beauty in the two works that were the most important sources of Francesco Bocchi’s art theory: Giorgio Vasari’s Lives published in 1550 and reprinted in a vastly enlarged edition in 1568, and Raffaele Borghini’s Riposo of 1584. It addresses the understanding of beauty emerging from a nalysis of Bocchi’s guide to Florence, the Bellezze, of 1591. The Florentine art works that Bocchi in the Eccellenza deems perfect are no more than four: D. Michelangelo’s Night in the Medici Chapel, the Madonna del Sacco by Andrea del Sarto, the cupola of Florence Cathedral, and Donatello’s St George. Whereas the Eccellenza is a text in praise of one work, the Bellezze della citta di Fiorenza, the first modern guide-book to any city, is written in praise of the entire city of Florence. In the Bellezze no less than in the Eccellenza, Bocchi portrays the greatest beauty as fullness of perfection.
