A young boy has been sent out to run an errand for his grandmother in his neighborhood on the south side of the Arno River in Florence. He is around eight or nine years old but he probably appears much younger thanks to his small stature—he was, after all, known throughout his life by the diminutive form of his name, Bernardino. The youth has taken this unsupervised moment wall of his parish church with a lump of charcoal, unaware that his admirable efforts and obvious skill have attracted the attention of one of Florence's more successful painters. This man, impressed by the youngster's natural ability and good judgment, decides that the boy would make an excellent apprentice and offers him an invitation to join his workshop. According to the biography written by Filippo Baldinucci (1625–1696) and published in the fourth volume of his Notizie de’ professori del disegno da Cimabue in qua in 1688 (Fig. 1.1), this is how Bernardo Barbatelli, now known as Bernardino Poccetti (1553–1612), came to his profession as an artist: through a serendipitous encounter with the painter Michele Tosini, also known as Michele di Ridolfo Ghirlandaio (1503–1577).

Baldinucci's Account of Poccetti's Discovery

It is not inconceivable that this story—although based on longstanding myths about artistic talent and discovery—might have at its core a kernel of truth, since much of it aligns with what is known about the childhood of Poccetti, who was born in San Gimignano in 1553 to Bartolomeo Barbatelli and his wife, Lucia.