Giusto Utens or Justus Utens (died 1609) was a Flemish painter who is remembered for the series of Medicean villas in lunette form that he painted for the third

Grand Duke of Tuscany The rulers of Tuscany varied over time, sometimes being margraves, the rulers of handfuls of border counties and sometimes the heads of the most important family of the region. Margraves of Tuscany, 812–1197 House of Boniface :These were origin ...

, Ferdinando I, in 1599–1602. He moved to

Carrara Carrara ( , ; , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, in central Italy, of the province of Massa and Carrara, and notable for the white or blue-grey marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some west-northwest of Florence. Its mot ...

about 1580, where he married, and where later he returned and died.

Medici villas

The

Medici villas The Medici villas are a series of rural building complexes in Tuscany which were owned by members of the Medici family between the 15th century and the 17th century. The villas served several functions: they were the country palaces of the Medic ...

illustrated by Utens from a bird's-eye perspective are: *

Villa Medici del Trebbio The Villa del Trebbio is a Medici villa in Tuscany, Italy. Description The villa is located near San Piero a Sieve in the Mugello region, in the province of Florence, in the area from which the Medici family originated. It was one of the fi ...

Villa Medicea di Cafaggiolo The Villa Medicea di Cafaggiolo is a villa situated near the Tuscan town of Barberino di Mugello in the valley of the River Sieve, some 25 kilometres north of Florence, central Italy. It was one of the oldest and most favoured of the ...

Palazzo Pitti The Palazzo Pitti (), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present ...

, the

Boboli Gardens The Boboli Gardens ( it, Giardino di Boboli) is a historical park of the city of Florence that was opened to the public in 1766. Originally designed for the Medici, it represents one of the first and most important examples of the Italian garden, ...

and Fort Belvedere * Villa Medici di Castello * Villa Medici La Petraia * Villa di Pratolino *

Villa Medicea L'Ambrogiana The Villa L'Ambrogiana was a rural palace or villa built during the late-Renaissance by Ferdinand I de' Medici; it is located at the confluence of the rivers Pesa and Arno, in the municipality of Montelupo Fiorentino. History Originally, the ...

* Villa di Lappeggi * Villa di Poggio a Caiano *

Villa di Serravezza A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became s ...

* Villa La Magia * Villa Di Marignolle * Villa di Montevettolini * Villa di Colle Salvetti The three missing

lunettes A lunette (French ''lunette'', "little moon") is a half-moon shaped architectural space, variously filled with sculpture, painted, glazed, filled with recessed masonry, or void. A lunette may also be segmental, and the arch may be an arc taken ...

are thought to be the

Villa di Artimino A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became s ...

and perhaps the

Villa Medici di Careggi The Villa Medici at Careggi is a patrician villa in the hills near Florence, Tuscany, central Italy. History The villa was among the first of a number of Medici villas, notable as the site of the Platonic Academy founded by Cosimo de' Medici, w ...

. In the early twentieth century an anonymous artist completed the scheme, based on eighteenth-century ''

vedute A ''veduta'' (Italian for "view"; plural ''vedute'') is a highly detailed, usually large-scale painting or, more often, print of a cityscape or some other vista. The painters of ''vedute'' are referred to as ''vedutisti''. Origins This genr ...

'' illustrating the villa at Careggi, that at Cerreto Guidi and

Villa del Poggio Imperiale Villa del Poggio Imperiale (English: Villa of the Imperial Hill) is a predominantly neoclassical former grand ducal villa in Arcetri, just to the south of Florence in Tuscany, Central Italy. Beginning as a villa of the Baroncelli of Florence, ...

, which in the sixteenth century was still the Villa di Poggio Baroncelli.

Location

Of the seventeen Utens paintings, fourteen have survived, and were displayed in the history museum of

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...

, the

Museo di Firenze com'era Museo di Firenze com'era ("Museum of Florence as it was") was a history and archaeology museum, one of the civic museums of the city of Florence. The museum was located on Via dell'Oriuolo in a former convent of the Oblates. It closed permanently ...

, until its closure in 2010. They were transferred in 2014 to a new permanent gallery at Petraia Villa Medici.

Lunettes of the Medicean villas

Image:Pitti boboli utens.jpg, Image:Ambrogiana utens.jpg, Image:Cafaggiolo utens.jpg, Image:Castello utens.jpg, Image:La magia utens.jpg, Image:La petraia utens.jpg, Image:Lappeggi utens.jpg, Image:Pratolino utens.jpg, Image:Trebbio utens.jpg, Image:Collesalvetti utens.jpg, Image:Villa di Poggio a Caiano, Giusto Utens.jpg, Image:Marignolle utens.jpg, Image:Monte vetturino utens.jpg, Image:Serravezza utens.jpg,

Medici villas

Location

Lunettes of the Medicean villas

See also

References

Further reading