Nunziata d'Antonio

Who was Nunziata d'Antonio?

Nunziato d'Antonio di Domenico, known as Nunziata was an Italian painter, fireworks artist, and bombardier of Renaissance Florence. None of Nunziata’s works can be identified today. Most of what we know about him comes from a single passage by Giorgio Vasari, in the 1568 edition of the Vite, within the Life of Ridolfo, David, and Benedetto Ghirlandaio. Too young to have known Nunziata personally, Vasari shaped him into a literary character: the joking painter in the tradition of Franco Sacchetti's novelle about Giotto and the fabled Buffalmacco. Nunziata belonged to the class of plebeian artists, and Vasari generally omitted their works. His story represents a part of Florentine art outside Vasari's canon, that became art history’s. His son Antonio, also a painter, left to work in England in 1519, and as Anthony Toto became court artist or Serjeant Painter to Henry VIII and Edward VI.