Works by Rosso Fiorentino

Rosso Fiorentino, a red-haired Florentine who trained in Andrea del Sarto's studio, painted contorted poses and often gaunt figures, and spent his last decade at the court of Francis I at Fontainebleau.

In late 1523 he went to Rome, where the work of Michelangelo and Raphael reset his style; he fled the city after the Sack of 1527 and eventually reached France, taking up a court post in 1530. He and Francesco Primaticcio were leading artists of the first School of Fontainebleau, and Primaticcio took charge there after Rosso died in 1540.

The men in the portraits below wear black against flat colour or open country; in Portrait of a Young Man, of 1516–1518, a town and bridge lie behind the sitter. In the Allegory of Salvation, of 1522, an old Saint Elizabeth stoops toward the Christ Child while a pale nude youth sprawls along the bottom. The Dying Cleopatra, from about 1525–1530, leans back with closed eyes, a snake coiled around her arm. About half of what follows is portraiture, the rest sacred or mythological, and most of it is painting.

Sources: Wikidata, Wikipedia, Gemäldegalerie Berlin, Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Walker Art Gallery, National Gallery of Art. Portrait: Giorgio Vasari.