Portrait of Giacomo Redi, the Artist's Son

Boy in Cap; portrait of Giacomo Redi: the Artist's son

Son of an employee of the Medici Court, Tommaso Redi trained under Anton Domenico Gabbiani, a favorite of Cosimo III, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and his retinue. Gabbiani was an accomplished draftsman, who studied anatomy with an almost scientific approach, and these interests were imparted to Redi. In 1690, with a stipend from Cosimo III, Redi traveled to Rome to continue his artistic studies with Carlo Maratti and Ciro Ferri. With his fellow students Benedetto Luti and Antonio Balestra, Redi made countless drawings, which were examined and criticized by Maratti. At the behest of the Grand Duke, Redi returned to Florence in 1700, and worked there for the rest of his life. Aside from the Grand Duke and his other Florentine clients, Redi so impressed Peter the Great of Russia with his talents that the Tsar sent four young artists from Moscow to study painting with him. In 1716, Peter asked Redi to lead the newly founded Academy of Fine Arts in Moscow, an offer that the artist declined. Redi also had many English patrons, who, while on their Grand Tour, ordered canvases depicting scenes from classical history. For the French collector Pierre Crozat, Redi supplied a series of drawings, which copied masterpieces by the great Florentine painters, including Pontormo, Bernardino Poccetti, Domenico Passignano, and Baldassare Franceschini. Always interested in the work of the Old Masters, Redi toured Italy with a learned English friend named Ignatius Hugford to study art.
Redi introduced to Florence a new figurative style composed of large forms clearly delineated by fluent contours. His artistic style, deeply influenced by his masters, embraced an austerity in composition, modeling and color, at the expense of the decorative precepts of Cortona and his followers. In contrast to his severe and very dark Self Portrait (Florence, Uffizi), this black chalk portrait sketch of his son, Giacomo, is sensitively light hearted. Yet, in his loose and casual handling of chalk, Redi betrays his superior grasp of human anatomy.