Fiorentino
Rosso

Italia • 1494−1540

Biography and information

Together with Jacopo Pontormo studied in the workshop of Andrea del Sarto. C 1523 worked in Rome. After looting the city by Charles V (1527) moved to France, took place at the court of Francis I. the Latter instructed him, along with Francesco Primaticcio, painting Royal estates in Fontainebleau (Italian masters in this Palace called "the school of Fontainebleau"). Contrary to the claims Vasari, death Rosso Fiorentino was not a suicide.

ROSSO FIORENTINO (Rosso Fiorentino, il) (Nast. the name and surname Giovanni Battista di Jacopo di Gaspare) (1494-1540), Italian painter, one of the founders of the Mannerist trends in the culture of the Renaissance.

 

Was born in Florence on March 8 1494. In his youth he studied in the Studio of Andrea del Sarto with Pontormo, who collaborated in the early period. He earned the nickname "Red of Florence", or simply "Red" (Il Rosso). In 1524-1527 worked in Rome, then, after the devastation there by French troops in a number of other Italian cities.

 

Already in the early things (the fresco of assumption of our lady, 1517, the Church of the Santissima Annunziata, Florence; Madonna with four saints, 1518, Uffizi, Florence) aggravating features of anxiety and inner disharmony. Vivid evidence of creative maturity Rosso may be the Removal from the cross (1521, City Pinakothek, Volterra) and Moses protecting the daughters of Jethro (approx. 1523, Uffizi), with their broken forms and, in particular, in first things, sharp colour dissonance. In the Roman period Rosso was strongly influenced by Michelangelo.

 

In 1530 went to France, where he succeeded in favor of king Francis I. Worked together with Primaticcio and other masters; 1532-1539) the decoration of the Gallery of Francis I in the Palace of Fontainebleau, which played a key role in the renewal of the old castle; with 1536 was the head of all the works, the decoration of the latter. These frescoes and reliefs from stucco, largely executed under sketches Rosso, is fanciful ornaments and formal order, full of difficult symbols and emblems, have had an impact on the development of mannerism in different European countries, including the establishment of the French school of Fontainebleau.

 

Died of Rosso Fiorentino in Paris on 14 November 1540.