Giovanni Balducci

Giovanni Balducci, called Il Cosci after his maternal uncle, was an Italian Mannerist painter born in Florence. Trained by Giovanni Battista Naldini, he collaborated early in his career with artists such as Giorgio Vasari and Federico Zuccaro, contributing to frescoes in the dome of Florence’s Duomo. Balducci worked on major decorative projects in Florence and Rome, including cycles of religious frescoes and altarpieces. Around 1600 he moved to Naples, where he continued painting altarpieces and frescoes. He died in Naples and was buried beneath the church of Santa Maria della Sanità.