- 6
Bernardo Buontalenti Florence 1531 - 1608
Description
- Bernardo Buontalenti
- a costume design for 'la pellegrina'
- inscribed with color notes and numbered in brown ink, lower center: tutta verde/36
- pen and brown ink and light brown wash over black chalk
Catalogue Note
This drawing is part of a group of costume designs by Buontalenti, the majority of which form two volumes now in the Biblioteca Nazionale, Florence.
The performance for which the study was made, La Pellegrina, was a set of musical interludes, staged in the Teatro Mediceo in the Uffizi in 1589, as part of a pageant to celebrate the marriage of Ferdinando I de' Medici and Christine of Lorrain. The production saw a collaboration between many leading figures of the Florentine arts: Buontalenti was the designer, Cristofano Malvezzi and Luca Marenzio composed the music, the libretto was written by Ottavio Rinuccini, and the philosophical concept was devised by the aristocratic philosopher Giovanni de' Bardi.
The crown and lily watermark seen in this sheet is also found in the designs by Buontalenti in the Biblioteca Nazionale.