Still Life of Flowers in a Vase

Dimensions with Frame: 18” high x 14 ½” wide (45.7 x 36.8 cm.)

Todini’s family was documented in the archives of Tuscany – especially in Siena and Arezzo, although his name suggests Todi as the family’s origin.
A group of Todini’s tempera paintings, amongst the two hundred fifty housed in the Uffizi, came from the Medici villa, Poggio à Caiano, where they were cited first in 1697. Their rich vases of glass with gilded decorations or of gold are probably inspired by his work for the Medici Grand Dukes. The vases contain bouquets of flowers with carnations, marguerites, poppies, daffodils, iris, roses and tulips. He was sometimes called Todini, and sometimes Sodini, which suggests he was a professional artist rather than a noble dilettante and friend of the Medici. Todini seeks to render all the floral elements scientifically clearly with a diffused luminescence. He was known to be learned regarding botany. His work for the Grand Dukes may have stimulated his rich compositions.
Todini signed as a citizen of Florence in 1688 as working for Cosimo III and Ferdinando da Medici. A chevalier of Malta, Fra Emilio Todini, his relative, lived in1624 in Siena. Todini himself spent time in Arezzo.
In the Medici archives account books from 1684-1688 it is cited that Ferdinando paid 45 scudi for a “quadretto à miniatura” (small miniature like painting on 10 January 1683 and two others in 1684 for 45 scudi signed Laurentimus de Todini fecit anno 1680 on “carta pecora” (sheepskin vellum). The Pitti Palace shows a painting of a porcelain vase containing a bouquet signed Todini.
His activity in Florence in the 2nd half of the 17th century is cited by Marilena Mosca in the book of still-life painting produced by Francesco Porzio and Federico Zeri in 1989, La Natura Morta in Italia, figures 713-714 and in the book, Nuovo Studi su la Natura Morta Italiana by Luigi Salerno.