Giusto Utens

Villa La Petraia by Giusto Utens

Giusto Utens or Justus Utens (died 1609) was a Flemish painter who is remembered for the series of Medicean villas in lunette form that he painted for the third Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinando I, in 1599–1602.[1]

He moved to Carrara about 1580, where he married, and where later he returned and died.

Medici villas

The Medici villas illustrated by Utens from a bird's-eye perspective are:

The three missing lunettes are thought to be the Villa di Artimino and perhaps the Villa Medici di Careggi. In the early twentieth century an anonymous artist completed the scheme, based on eighteenth-century vedute illustrating the villa at Careggi, that at Cerreto Guidi and Villa del Poggio Imperiale, which in the sixteenth century was still the Villa di Poggio Baroncelli.

Location

Of the seventeen Utens paintings, fourteen have survived, and were displayed in the history museum of Florence, the Museo di Firenze com'era, until its closure in 2010. They were transferred in 2014 to a new permanent gallery at Petraia Villa Medici.[2]

Lunettes of the Medicean villas

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Giusto Utens.

References

  1. ^ Mignani, Daniela (1995) [1991]. The Medicean Villas by Giusto Utens (2nd ed.). Florence: Arnaud. ISBN 88-8015-000-6.
  2. ^ "Giusto Utens Lunettes in Petraia Villa Medici". Archived from the original on 19 October 2016. Retrieved 14 October 2016.

Further reading

  • Ballerini, Isabella. (2003). The Medici Villas: The Complete Guide. Florence: Giunti. ISBN 978-88-09-02995-8.