IACOPINO DEL CONTE. - Painter b. in Florence in 1510, d. in Rome on 9 January 1598. A pupil of Andrea del Sarto, he also came under the influence of Michelangelo and of the leading Tuscan Mannerists, especially Salviati. Having moved to Rome, in 1538 he became a member of the Congregazione dei virtuosi al Pantheon and then of the Accademia di S. Luca.
For the Oratory of S. Giovanni Decollato, an ancient Florentine Confraternity of Mercy, I. del C. painted his first and principal Roman works in three frescoes in which are represented respectively: The Announcement of the Birth of the Baptist to Zechariah (1535), the Preaching of the Baptist (1538) and the Baptism of Christ (1541). At the same time and afterwards he painted altarpieces for the churches of Rome, where there remains in S. Luigi de' Francesi that of the chapel of St. Remigius, and portraits, some of them very beautiful, such as that of Michelangelo in the Chaise d'Estampes collection, that of St. Ignatius of Loyola at the Compagnia di Gesù in Rome, and that of a young Scarlatti in the Pitti Gallery in Florence. To the same I. has been assigned by Venturi the Madonna with Child, St. John the Baptist and Angels in the National Gallery in London, previously recognized as a work of Michelangelo. A painter of very notable chromatic and draughtsmanly power, I. created his masterpiece in the frescoes of the Roman Oratory of S. Giovanni Decollato, where the skilfully architected compositions acquire the value of grandiose painted high reliefs. His pupil was Scipione Pulzone of Gaeta.