Bathers at San Niccolò
Bathers at San Niccolò is a large oil painting by Domenico Cresti, known as Domenico Passignano, signed and dated 1600. The Mannerist painting depicts men bathing in the River Arno near the crenelated Tower of San Niccolò in Florence.

The subject is a departure from Passignano's usual oeuvre of religious, mythological, and historical paintings. The depictions draw on earlier works depicting naked people, such as religious paintings of the torments of Hell. The painting may also draw on a pair of engravings by Albrecht Dürer of bathing men and women, and paintings of public baths made by Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, particularly Michelangelo's uncompleted (and now lost) fresco of the Battle of Cascina made for the Room of the Great Council now the Salone dei Cinquecento) at the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence between 1504 and 1508, known from engravings of the (also lost) cartoon. The battle was fought on a hot summer's day, so the Florentine soldiers removed their armour to bathe in the river: the Pisans attempted to launch a surprise attack, but the refreshed Florentines were warned of the approaching Pisans and re-armed themselves in time to defeat their tired enemies.

Passignano made a number of preliminary drawings in red chalk, perhaps made from life, some of which are held by the Uffizi and the Louvre. The completed oil painting depicts a number of muscular men in or beside the river: stripping off, entering and leaving the water, bathing, conversing, and embracing. It measures and is signed and dated lower center: "OPs. DOMCI. PASSIGNANI / FLO MDC".

The provenance of the painting before the mid-20th century is uncertain. It may have influenced a c.1630 engraving of a similar bathing scene by Jacques Callot. It may be a work mentioned in a catalogue by Filippo Baldinucci published posthumously in 1728, as being owned by Filippo di Lorenzo Niccolini, third Marchese di Ponsacco e Camugliano (1655-1738), in Florence in the late 17th century. It appeared with the art dealers Reid and Lefevre in London by 1959, and passed through several private collections, before being sold at Sotheby's in New York in 2017 for US$732,500. The auction catalogue described it as "perhaps the most important artistic example of homoerotic art of the late Mannerist period", anticipating by 300 years paintings such as Thomas Eakins's "The Swimming Hole".
Q966655
Domenico Passignano
PER
Q131808
Mannerist
Concept
Q115457
River Arno
LOC
Q3908806
Tower of San Niccolò
LOC
Q2044
Florence
LOC
Q564
Hell
Concept
Q5580
Albrecht Dürer
PER
Q785952
public bath
Concept
Q5592
Michelangelo
PER
Q762
Leonardo da Vinci
PER
Q2236899
Michelangelo's uncompleted (and now lost) fresco
EVE
Q2259031
Battle of Cascina
EVE
Q271928
Salone dei Cinquecento
LOC
Q271928
Palazzo Vecchio
LOC
Q13375
Pisa
LOC
Q51252
Uffizi
LOC
Q19675
the Louvre
LOC
Q460124
Jacques Callot
PER
Q979574
Filippo Baldinucci
PER
Q18347243
Reid and Lefevre
LOC
Q654762
Sotheby's
ORG
Q214905
Thomas Eakins
PER
Q766212
The Swimming Hole
MEDIA
Q86894306
Bathers at San Niccolò
MEDIA
1600-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1600
DATE
1504-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1504
DATE
1508-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1508
DATE
1728-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1728
DATE
1959-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1959
DATE
2017-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
2017
DATE
-20^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
-20
NUMBER
+1630^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
1630
NUMBER
+1655^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
1655
NUMBER
-1738^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
-1738
NUMBER
+17^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
17
NUMBER
+732.500^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
732,500
NUMBER
creator
inception
located in the administrative territorial entity
located in or next to body of water
has works in the collection
has works in the collection
has works in the collection
has works in the collection
creator
depicts
notable work
creator