Franciabigio

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Portrait of a Young Man. Louvre, Paris.

Franciabigio (1482-1525) was a Florentine painter of the Renaissance. The name of this artist is generally given as Marcantonio Franciabigio; it appears, however, that his only real ascertained name was Francesco di Cristofano; and that he was currently termed Francia Bigio, the two appellatives being distinct.

He was born in Florence, and initially worked under Albertinelli until about 1506. In 1505 he befriended Andrea del Sarto; and by the next year, the two painters set up common shop in the Piazza del Grano. Franciabigio paid much attention to anatomy and perspective, and to the proportions of his figures. He was particularly proficient in fresco, and Vasari claimed that he surpassed all his contemporaries in this method.

In the court of the Servites (or cloister of the SS. Annunziata) in Florence he painted in 1513 the Marriage of the Virgin. This was part of a larger series mainly completed by Andrea del Sarto. The friars having uncovered this work before it was quite finished, Franciabigio was so incensed that, seizing a mason's hammer, he struck at the head of the Virgin, and some other heads; and the fresco, which would otherwise be his masterpiece in that method, remains thus mutilated.

At the Scalzo, in another series of frescoes on which Andrea was likewise employed, he executed in 1518-1519 the Departure of John the Baptist for the Desert, and the Meeting of the Baptist with Jesus; and, at the Medici palace at Poggio a Caiano, in 1521, the Triumph of Cicero.

Various works which have been ascribed to Raphael are reasonably deemed to be by Franciabigio. Such as th Madonna del Pozzo in the Uffizi Gallery; the half figure of a Young Man, in the Louvre; and the famous picture in the Fuller-Maitland collection, a Young Man with a Letter. These two works show a close analogy in style to another in the Pitti gallery, avowedly by Franciabigio, a Youth at a Window, and to some others—which bear this painter's recognized monogram.

The series of portraits, taken collectively, placed beyond dispute the eminent and idiosyncratic genius of the master. Two other works of his, of some celebrity, are the Calumny of Apelles, in the Pitti, and the Bath of Bathsheba (painted in 1523), in the Dresden gallery.

[edit] Critical assessment and legacy

When compared to his younger contemporary colleague, Andrea del Sarto, Franciabigio appears more sculptural and less forward-looking. The Quattrocento monumentality (or stiffness) of posing is evident in figures. Franciabigio attends more to linearity and balance in fresco recalling Massacio, while the complexity and Sarto's paintings reflect an understanding of the dissipating velvety colorful fabric of molding that characterizes Venetian work, and the development of sway that will "mannerize" art in the decades to come.

[edit] References

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
Freedberg, Sydney J. (1993). Pelican History of Art: Painting in Italy, 1500-1600, 96-97 Penguin Books Ltd.