View source for Rosso Fiorentino

{{Short description|Italian painter}}
{{More footnotes needed|date=May 2020}}
{{Expand Italian|topic=bio|date=August 2023|Rosso Fiorentino}}
{{use dmy dates|date=April 2024}}
{{Infobox artist
| name    = Rosso Fiorentino
| image   = Houghton Typ 525 68.864 - Vasari, Le vite - Il Rosso.jpg
| image_size = 200px
| caption = Rosso Fiorentino, in the ''Lives'' of [[Giorgio Vasari]]
| birth_name = Giovanni Battista di Jacopo
| birth_date = 8 March 1495
| birth_place = [[Florence]], [[Republic of Florence]]
| death_date  = {{death date and age|1540|11|14|1495|3|8|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Fontainebleau]], [[Kingdom of France]]
| nationality = Italian
| field    = [[Painting]]
| training = 
| movement = [[Mannerism]]
| works = 
| patrons = 
| influenced by = 
| influenced = 
| awards = 
}}

[[File:Rosso Fiorentino 005.jpg|thumb|225px|[[Moses Defends Jethro's Daughters|''Moses Defending the Daughters of Jethro'']] by Rosso Fiorentino (c.1523) at the [[Uffizi Gallery]], Florence.]]

'''Giovanni Battista di Jacopo''' (8 March 1495{{efn|According to [[Florentine calendar|the calendar system in use in Florence at the time]], the year began on 25 March, meaning that his birth year was marked as 1494.}} – 14 November 1540), known as '''Rosso Fiorentino''' (meaning "Florentine Redhead" in Italian) or '''Il Rosso''' ("The Redhead"), was an Italian [[Mannerism|Mannerist]] [[Painting|painter]] who worked in oil and [[fresco]] and belonged to the [[Florentine school]].

==Biography==
Born in [[Florence]] with the red hair that gave him his nickname, Rosso first trained in the studio of [[Andrea del Sarto]] alongside his contemporary, [[Pontormo]].  His early works include ''[[Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist (Rosso Fiorentino)|Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist]]'' (Walters Art Gallery), ''[[Cherub Playing a Lute]]'' (Uffizi) and ''[[The Infant Saint John the Baptist (Rosso Fiorentino)|The Infant Saint John the Baptist]]'' (private collection), all produced around 1521. In late 1523, Rosso moved to Rome, where he was exposed to the works of [[Michelangelo]], [[Raphael]], and other Renaissance artists, resulting in the realignment of his artistic style.

Fleeing Rome after the [[Sack of Rome (1527)|Sacking of 1527]], Rosso eventually went to [[France]] where he secured a position at the court of [[Francis I of France|Francis I]] in 1530, remaining there until his death. Together with [[Francesco Primaticcio]], Rosso was one of the leading artists to work at the [[Chateau Fontainebleau]] as part of the "First [[School of Fontainebleau]]", spending much of his life there. Following his death in 1540 (which, according to an unsubstantiated claim by [[Giorgio Vasari|Vasari]], was a suicide [http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/bio/r/rosso/biograph.html]), Francesco Primaticcio took charge of the artistic direction at Fontainebleau.

Rosso's reputation, along those of other stylized late Renaissance Florentines,  was long out of favour in comparison to other more naturalistic and graceful contemporaries, but has revived considerably in recent decades. That his masterpiece is in a small city, away from the tourist track, was a factor in this, especially before the arrival of photography. His poses are certainly contorted, and his figures often appear haggard and thin, but his work has considerable power.

==''Deposition from the Cross''==
[[Image:Rosso Fiorentino 002.jpg|thumb|right|225px|Rosso Fiorentino. ''[[Deposition from the Cross, Volterra (Rosso Fiorentino)|Descent from the Cross]]''. 1521. Oil on wood. 375 × 196 cm. Pinacoteca Comunale di Volterra, Italy.]]
His masterpiece is generally considered to be the ''Deposition'' or ''[[Deposition from the Cross, Volterra (Rosso Fiorentino)|Descent from the Cross]]'' [[altarpiece]] in the Pinacoteca Comunale di [[Volterra]] (initially painted for the Duomo). In contrast to the frozen grief of other depositions, this one appears as a hurried and complicated operation, while the figures below have simple and forceful expressions of quiet grief, with powerful expressions hinted at by hidden faces. The sky is somber. The three ladders and those carrying down Christ appear precarious. Christ himself is sallow. Contrast this frenetic, windswept scene with the equally complex, but more restrained composition on the same theme by the near contemporary Florentine Mannerist [[Pontormo]].

Rosso would go on to paint a second, darker and more crowded ''[[Sansepolcro Deposition|Deposition]]'' altarpiece for the church of [[San Lorenzo, Sansepolcro|San Lorenzo]] in Sansepolcro.

==Gallery==
<gallery perrow="4">
File:Rosso Fiorentino - A Young Man - WGA20114.jpg|''A Young Man''
Image:Rosso Fiorentino 003.jpg|
Image:Rosso Fiorentino 004.jpg|
Image:Rosso fiorentino, sposalizio della vergine e santi, 1523, 02.jpg| ''[[Marriage of the Virgin (Rosso Fiorentino)|Marriage of the Virgin and Saints]]'' (1523)
File:Rosso fiorentino (attr.), bacco, venere e marte.jpg|''[[Bacchus, Venus and Cupid]]'' (c. 1531)
Image:Fontainebleau interior francois I gallery 02.JPG|''Elephant'', [[Château de Fontainebleau]] (c. 1536)
Image:Fontainebleau interior francois I gallery 03.JPG|''Diana'', Château de Fontainebleau
Image:Rosso Fiorentino 001.jpg|
Image:The Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist.jpg|''[[Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist (Rosso Fiorentino)|The Holy Family]]''
File:Rosso fiorentino, ritratto di giovane seduto con tappetoi.jpg|''[[Portrait of a Young Man Seated on a Carpet]]''
</gallery>

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
*[http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/bio/r/rosso/biograph.html Rosso Fiorentino's biography at Web Gallery of Art]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20080308142020/http://cgfa.sunsite.dk/fiorentino/ Examples of Fiorentino's art]
*[http://art.thewalters.org/detail/29457/the-holy-family-with-the-infant-saint-john-the-baptist/ Example of unfinished Rosso painting showing underdrawing]

{{Rosso Fiorentino}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosso Fiorentino}}
[[Category:Italian male painters]]
[[Category:16th-century Italian painters]]
[[Category:Italian Mannerist painters]]
[[Category:Painters from Florence]]
[[Category:1495 births]]
[[Category:1540 deaths]]