A New Masaccio—and Other Low-Life Images—from Anton Francesco Grazzini's Florentine Art History

Abstract

What if a new Masaccio were found? This article offers a 16th century ekphrasis of a “lost” Masaccio so ornate, funny, and lusty that it upends prior conceptions of the artist. I examine this description and two others, all by the comic writer Anton Francesco Grazzini (“Il Lasca,” 1503-1584), to see how art could be leveraged within Florence's literary and artistic culture as class commentary. I have located in Florence two of the works of art that clearly motivated Grazzini's literary portraits and, by analyzing Grazzini's texts in relation to these and other possible inspirations, I reveal his associative view of Florence, one that links upper-class, humanist concerns with lower-class stereotypes. What emerges is a Florence with boundaries removed: in Grazzini's words, the material and literary fabric of the city are knitted together in a new way, one that elides eras as it conjures the visions, sounds, and even tastes of Florence's carnival streets. My analysis suggests why Grazzini may have wanted such juxtapositions, and will show that while his vision is fantastic, it is grounded in identifiable, even material, cultural production.