A. Bernacchioni – Raphael and the Badia Fiorentina painters

According to the reconstruction presented in this study, Raphael arrived in Florence in 1504 with the help of Benedictine monks, and especially thanks to the distinguished patron Ignazio Squarcialupi, who was Abbot of the Florentine Abbey (Badia Fiorentina) and who had been head of Saint Peter’s Monastery in Perugia from 1500 to 1504 which had close links with the Badia. It is likely that Raphael was welcomed into a workshop on the Via del Proconsolo owned by the Badia where the gilder Francesco del Dolzemele and the painter Andrea di Cosimo Feltrini worked. The latter was a pupil of Cosimo Rosselli for illustrations and of Morto da Feltre for grotesques. An identification is proposed of Morto da Feltre with the Master of Serumido, who painted the monochrome portraits of the Doni husband and wife. This workshop had among its clients families who gravitated around the powerful monastery, such as the Doni, the Altoviti, the Canigiani, the Ridolfi and the Taddei, for whom Raphael worked and with whom he was in contact both in Florence and Rome.

Raphael, Florence, Badia Fiorentina, Master of Serumido