Pietro Dandini

Pietro Dandini was born into the family trade. His uncle Cesare and his teacher Vincenzo were both painters, and the Dandini workshop was a fixture of Florentine art through the 1600s. Rather than stay put, Pietro traveled to Venice, Bologna, Modena and Rome to study, and he came home with a deliberately mixed manner, borrowing whatever suited the commission.

That flexibility made him a favourite of the Medici. Grand Prince Ferdinando and the grand duke kept him busy, and much of his work went into Florentine churches. In 1701 he painted the dome of the main chapel of Santa Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi, sending the saint up into the sky ringed by Florentine holy figures, the kind of airy ceiling a Baroque congregation would tip its head back to follow.

Dandini trained the next generation as well, including his own sons Ottaviano and Vincenzo the younger, and he worked in Florence until his death in 1712.