Madonna and Child between St Barnabas and St Sylvester

The Madonna and Child are represented seated between Saints Barnabas and Sylvester, protectors of the Spedale della Misericordia e Dolce hospital in Prato. The painting was produced by Ludovico Buti for the audience chamber of the hospital. In an inventory of 1580, it is described with the grandiose and elegant wooden frame, designed by Buti himself, bearing the inscription “MIA” - short for Misericordia (Mercy) - and with a blue curtain covering the image. This is a very significant detail, because it denotes the importance already attached to the painting, a symbol of the unification of the two hospitals of Misericordia and Dolce in 1545. The work, from the early period of the artist's life, is placed in the Mannerist sphere, close to Giorgio Vasari and the painters from the workshop of Francesco I, especially due to the stylistic approach of the central group.
Here, in the centre, we find the Madonna seated, with her face turned towards St. Sylvester, to the right of the painting, and her arms outstretched in the opposite direction, clutching the Child who is climbing on his mother's robe, while looking towards the viewer. St. Sylvester wears a mitre on his head, a papal hat adorned with precious stones, and seems to be striking up a conversation with the Madonna. At his feet, the head of a dragon is depicted, an iconographic attribute of the saint. Behind the central group, almost in semi-darkness, Saint Barnabas holds an olive branch in one hand, and in the other, a red book.
Around 1581, Buti participated in the grotesque decoration of the first corridor of the Uffizi as an assistant to Alessandro Allori together with Giovanni Bizzelli, Giovanni Maria Butteri and Stefano Pieri. Later, drawing closer to the methods of Santi di Tito, his painting began to imitate his spontaneity of language. His skills as an eclectic artist are evident in the portraits of Francesco di Marco Datini, exhibited here in the museum, and Ferdinando de' Medici, in the hall of the Palazzo Comunale. As archive documents attest, both works were commissioned in 1588 by the Casa Pia dei Ceppi.