Bartolomeo Ghetti

Who was Bartolomeo Ghetti?

Bartolomeo di Zanobi Ghetti was a Florentine Renaissance painter who has only recently emerged from obscurity as a result of art historical research.

Our knowledge of Ghetti’s career rests chiefly on a brief notice by Vasari, a few mentions in documents, and half a dozen jewel-like, painstakingly finished paintings. Vasari briefly mentions Ghetti, whom he calls "Baccio Gotti" in the Lives, describing him as a pupil of Ghirlandaio and stating that he worked in France at the court of King Francois I.

No works by Ghetti were known until the publication, in 2003, of documents showing that the artist had painted and restored a number of works for the church of San Pietro a Selva, near Malmantile in the lower Arno valley. The only sixteenth-century painting in the church is a frescoed lunette depicting the Madonna and Child. Waldman identified this painting as a work by the Master of the Copenhagen Charity, an anonymous artist influenced by Ghirlandaio. The conjunction of the painting and the document led to the identification of the Master of the Copenhagen Charity as Bartolomeo Ghetti.