Journal of Art Historiography (Dec 2013)
‘Antonio Ghini and Andrea di Francesco Guardi: Two 15th-century Tuscan Artists in the Service of Local Governments’
Abstract
Antonio Ghini and Andrea Guardi are two little studied sculptors who likely trained in their native cities of Lucca and Florence, but they built their careers and fortune elsewhere in Tuscany in the second half of the Quattrocento. Ghini’s activity is recorded as being connected to local civic governments and institutions in Lucca, Siena, Asciano, and Grosseto. However, Andrea Guardi worked for a variety of patrons including local rulers, and eventually he established a flourishing workshop in the Principality of Piombino in the service of the Appiani family (c. 1466). Neither Ghini nor Guardi were itinerant artists, but archival records and the chronology of their works suggest that they were both compelled to travel in order to acquire prestigious and profitable commissions, and in order to make their workshops viable. In the light of new archival material and remaining visual evidence, this paper seeks to elucidate the relationship between the two artists and the governments and institutions they worked for, and how this exchange influenced their styles and career paths. The way in which the works that these artists produced were displayed, also suggests that they were employed to fulfil the political agenda of their patrons. Thus, reasons of political convenience as well as economic necessity may have induced Ghini and Guardi to travel and/ or to re-locate their workshops within the Tuscan region.
