Rosso Fiorentino

Rosso Fiorentino, real name Giovanni Battista di Jacopo di Guasparre (1494-1540), Italian painter. His early works helped define the first phase of Mannerism. A more developed Mannerist style is exhibited in his Descent from the Cross (1521, Pinacoteca Comunale, Volterra); its idiosyncratic modelling and perspective, violent colours, and harsh lighting produce the disturbing effect characteristic of much 16th-century Italian art. After about 1524, however, Rosso's figures became more solid and sculptural—as in the Dead Christ with Angels (1525-1526, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). From 1530 to his death Rosso worked on the decoration of the Château de Fontainebleau in France, where, with the Bolognese painter Francesco Primaticcio, he introduced a more subdued Mannerist style in keeping with courtly French taste.