Forgotten Artists: Rosso Fiorentino

In 1527 Rome was sacked by 34,000 Imperial troops who had mutinied and forced their commander, Charles III, Duke of Bourbon to lead them towards Rome. The troops were part of the forces under Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor then in conflict with the in League of Cognac, an alliance of France, Milan, Venice, Florence and the Papacy against the Empire. Duke Charles was fatally wounded in the assault, allegedly shot by Benvenuto Cellini. The Duke was wearing his famous white cloak to mark him out to his troops, but it also had the unintended consequence of pointing him out as the leader to his enemies. The death of the last respected command authority among the Imperial army caused any restraint in the soldiers to disappear, and they easily captured the walls of Rome the same day. Philibert of Châlon took command of the armies, but he was not as popular or feared, leaving him with little authority. One of the Swiss Guard's most notable hours occurred at this time. Almost the entire guard was massacred by Imperial troops on the steps of St Peter's Basilica. Of 189 guards on duty only the 42 who accompanied the pope survived, but the bravery of the rearguard ensured that Pope Clement VII escaped to safety. After the brutal execution of some 1,000 defenders of the Papal capital and shrines, the pillage began. Churches and monasteries, as well as the palaces of prelates and cardinals, were looted and destroyed. Even pro-Imperial cardinals had to pay to save their properties from the rampaging soldiers. After three days of ravages, Philibert ordered the sack to cease, but few obeyed. In the meantime, Clement remained a prisoner in Castel Sant'Angelo. Francesco Maria della Rovere and Michele Antonio of Saluzzo arrived with troops on 1 June in Monterosi, north of the city. Their cautious behaviour prevented them from obtaining an easy victory against the now totally undisciplined Imperial troops. The population of Rome dropped from some 55,000 before the attack, to a meagre 10,000. An estimated 6,000 to 12,000 people were murdered. Many Imperial soldiers also died in the following months (they remained in the city until February 1528) from diseases caused by the large number of unburied dead bodies in the city. The pillage only ended when, after eight months, the food ran out, there was no one left to ransom and plague appeared. This event marked the end of the Roman Renaissance. In combination with the equally jarring crises of Copernicus' challenge to the model of the universe, and the Protestant reformation, many artists began to revolt against the Renaissance. They often employed an inversion of the key elements of Renaissance art. An emphasis upon primary colors became and emphasis on secondary and shock colors. Naturalism became artificial distortion. Clarity of form became spatial ambiguity. Symmetry and a central focal point frequently became asymmetry and a central void. It has been suggested that these inversions of Renaissance elements were intended as a rejection of the Renaissance artist's support of the imperial aspirations of the Church and the Pope. One of the finest of the Mannerists... and an artist I rarely hear mentioned here... or elsewhere... was Rosso Fiorentino (Giovanni Battista di Jacopo: 1494/95-1540). The nick-name "Rosso" (red) came about due to the artist's flaming red hair. Rosso's oeuvre is rather small in scale. Among his better known works are the paintings: Moses Defending the Daughters of Jethro:

... and the angel that shows up on endless Christmas cards:

The work generally accepted as Rosso's masterpiece is the Deposition (or Descent from the Cross):

This painting brilliantly illustrates the Mannerist inversion of Renaissance elements. The figures are organized around the edges of the painting leaving a central void... a focal point on Christ's feet. The color harmonies are predominantly red and green (especially Christ's greenish body). The figures are unnaturally elongated... and seem almost hatched out of stone:

All of these elements succeed in creating a powerful expressionistic image that conveys the Angst and Horror of the scene. My favorite, of Rosso's paintings, however, is the Pieta (top of this post). This painting employs an even greater "expressionist" distortion of both the human figure and the space. I'm reminded of the horror vacui or fear of emptiness of Medieval painting and sculpture. Even as cramped as this painting is, all the figures spiral around the void beneath Christ's arm. The red-green harmony is even greater here and suggests the warmth of Titian's paintings.