BAROCCI, FEDERICO. — Painter, born at Urbino, according to Bellori in 1528 (according to other sources in 1535), died there on 30 September 1612. His great-grandfather was Ambrogio B., a Milanese sculptor who took up residence in Urbino under Federico di Montefeltro. Introduced to drawing by his father, he studied with Giambattista Franco, a Venetian painter summoned by Duke Guidobaldo to fresco the vault of the choir of the bishop’s palace; the latter wished B. to devote himself intensively to the study of antiquity. He then moved to Pesaro, to the studio of the painter and architect Bartolomeo Genga. At the age of twenty, encouraged by the example of his great fellow townsman Raffaello, he went to Rome, where he won the praise of Giovanni da Udine and Michelangiolo. He then returned to Urbino and remained there for several years; during this period, a painter arrived there with several cartoons and pastel heads by Correggio, and B. was completely captivated by that manner, which so well corresponded to his inclination. Returning to Rome in 1560, he worked there on his best-known works, beginning with the decorations in the Casina of Pio IV in the Vatican gardens.
B. painted almost exclusively sacred subjects: in Rome, the Last Supper in S. Maria sopra Minerva, the Presentation of Mary and the Visitation in the Chiesa Nuova, the Annunciation (formerly at Loreto), the Rest in Egypt (formerly at Perugia), and the Blessed Michelina (formerly at Pesaro) in the Vatican Pinacoteca; in Perugia, the Deposition from the Cross in the cathedral; in Florence, the Madonna del popolo in the Uffizi Gallery, which also houses the Self-portrait and the Portrait of Francesco Maria II della Rovere; in Milan, The Martyrdom of S. Vitale at Brera (formerly at Ravenna); in Urbino, The Last Supper and S. Sebastiano in the cathedral. Among his few secular works, besides the series of portraits, mention should be made of Aeneas Fleeing from Troy in the Borghese Gallery, painted for Rudolf II and replicated for Cardinal della Rovere.
For Schmarsow, B. is the founder of the Baroque,
(Alinari photograph)
BAROCCI, FEDERICO – The Circumcision – Paris, Louvre Museum.
and, more precisely defined, an essentially Correggio-like painter who, like Correggio, anticipated various characteristic aspects and movements of the Baroque. From Correggio he also derived, carrying it to the point of sentimentality, his love of grace and delicacy of form. He was an ardent and exceptionally attentive observer of nature, hence the great number of his drawings. For the figures he used wax models, on which he studied the drapery. He took great care over the harmony of colours, to the extent of calling painting music. Often, instead of a brush, he used his thumb for blending, and altered the tones with vermilions and blues in the cartoons, arriving at excessive gradations. The art of B. influenced Rubens, Van Dyck and Murillo.
