Rosso Fiorentino is one of the most original and difficult painters of the entire Renaissance period, and a crucial figure among the so-called Mannerists. This account of the life and works of the Florentine painter and draftsman covers the period from his birth in 1494 until about 1530, when he abandoned Italy for France and the court of Francis I, where he finally received the recognition he deserved. Offering an analysis of Rosso's Italian career and its historical context, this book provides an account of his paintings and a detailed assessment of his Italian patronage. Beginning with his first works in Florence, David Franklin examines in close detail not only Rosso's technique and the stylistic qualities of his paintings and drawings, but also his relationship with his patrons, establishing - in many cases for the first time - the circumstances in which the paintings were commissioned and what functions and significance they might have had when they were produced.
As Franklin charts Rosso's career in Florence and Rome, Volterra, Perugia, San Sepolcro and Citta di Casteflo, the contextual study of his work becomes particularly intriguing, revealing how his art was received in the unusually large number of places in which he worked, not least because his paintings were frequently rejected by his patrons. Illustrated with some of the most powerful works of the Renaissance, this book throws light upon issues of interpretation that arise in very different areas of the study of 16th-century painting and design. In providing a new basis for the assessment of Rosso, it opens up new perspectives for considering the period as a whole.
- ISBN10 0300058934
- ISBN13 9780300058932
- Publish Date 28 September 1994
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 22 September 2006
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Yale University Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 336
- Language English