Rosso Fiorentino
By: Bryce Campbell
Important Life Stages
- Born March 08, 1494 in Florence, Italy
- Even though he finished his career in Paris, France, Fiorentino spent most of his time in Florence, Italy.
- As a boy, Rosso Fiorentino studied art alone because he had difficulty finding a teacher of his liking. At age 17, he managed to enter the workshop of a successful artist named Andrea del Sarto, where he met his teacher, Ponormo.
- In his early years, Fiorentino worked with Ponormo to illustrate many paintings with their new technique called mannerism. In 1523, he moved to Rome, where he met Michelangelo and members of Raphael's circle. Later In 1530, Rosso went to France to paint for King Francis I in the Fontainebleau. In 1540, he mistakenly accused his friends of being a their, and unfortunatley took his own life.
- Rosso Fiorentino was one of the founders of the new painting style of Mannerism. Mannerism includes many oil paintings and focuses on scale and perspective. This new style, which contrasts dramatically with the order and calm of High Renaissance art, is well illustrated by Deposition from the Cross (1521). Fiorentino also painted Putto Che Suona and Pietà.
- Rosso Fiorentino’s patrons are unknown. All we know today is that his patrons found his work rather disturbing. The Medici family did not act as a patron to Fiorentino.
- Fiorentino used lots of perspectivism and naturalism in his work. He painted with oil paints and uses depth in almost all of his works. Rosso Fiorentino tended to have very little secularism in his paintings.
Analysis
- Deposition from the Cross
- Painted in 1521
- Deposition from the Cross is in Church of Santa Felicita, Florence, and copies of it can be found in books throughout the world.
- This piece of work was so important because it incorporated the new style called mannerism. Deposition from the Cross used oil paint that was applied in light strokes. Thus, it created a smooth texture. This was a new painting style that not many artists used, and Fiorentino was one of the first.
- This piece depicts the moment, recounted in the gospel, when the followers of Christ remove His body from the crucifix. The man with the red hair is thought to be Fiorentino, but nobody knows for sure. Also, the colors used in this altarpiece are dramatic and bold, which gives the feelings of anguish and horror.
- Even though Fiorentino did not use much humanism in his paintings, this has a great amount of it because the piece mostly focuses on human emotion. All the faces look severely sorrow and hurt. This includes religion, but the detailed aspects of the faces is why this piece is humanism.
- I find this piece so interesting because during the Renaissance time period, there was a lot of secularism, but in this, there is none. It is a scene when Jesus was taken down from the crucifix.
- If you want to learn more, a picture and description of this piece can be found at http://www.artble.com/artists/rosso_fiorentino/paintings/deposition_from_the_cross
Works Cited
Artble,. 'Deposition From The Cross'. N. p., 2015. Web. 4 Dec. 2015.
Fiorentino, Rosso. Deposition from the Cross. 1521. Alterpiece. Church of Santa Felicita,
Florence.
Google.com,. 'Pieta - Google Search'. N. p., 2015. Web. 4 Dec. 2015.
Google.com,. 'Putto Che Suona - Google Search'. N. p., 2015. Web. 4 Dec. 2015.
"Il Rosso." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Biography in Context.
Web. 3 Dec. 2015.