Pier Francesco Mazzucchelli

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The Martyrdom of Saints Secunda and Rufina. Collaborative painting by Il Morazzone, Giulio Cesare Procaccini, and Giovanni Battista Crespi (1620-1625).

Pier Francesco Mazzucchelli (commonly known as il Morazzone; 1573-1626?) was an Italian painter of the early Baroque era in Milan.

He was born in Morazzone, near Varese, Lombardy, the son of a mason, who soon after his birth moved to Rome. There he was influenced by Ventura Salimbeni and Giuseppe Cesari, known as Cavalier D'Arpino and began to work in a Mannerist style. In Rome he painted some canvases and also his first frescoes (Adoration by the Magi and a Visitation) in San Silvestro in Capite (1596).

He returned to Milan in 1597. In Lombardy, he painted frescoes for the Cappella del Rosario in San Vittore in Varese (1599), and worked in some of the Sacri Monti of the Alps. This activity began with the Ascent to Calvary (1602-1606) chapel in the Sacro Monte of Varallo where he was influenced by Gaudenzio Ferrari and developed a more dramatic style. In 1608-1609 he completed the Flagellation chapel in the Sacro Monte of Varese then returned to Varallo for the Ecce Homo chapel (1610-13). Last of this serie is the Porziuncola chapel (1616-20) in Sacro Monte of Orta. His other frescoes include the Cappella della Buona Morte in San Gaudenzio in Novara and some Prophets in the Piacenza Cathedral, completed after his death by the Bolognese painter Guercino.

He also painted altarpieces for many churches in Northern Italy and canvases for private collectors. He collaborated with Giovanni Battista Crespi (Il Cerano) and Giulio Cesare Procaccini in the painting of the Quadroni of San Carlo Borromeo for the Duomo of Milan. Among the pupils and followers of il Morazzone were Francesco Cairo, Stefano & Gioseffo Danedi, Isidoro Bianchi, Giovanni Paolo & Giovanni Battista Recchi, Paolo Caccianiga, Tommaso Formenti, and Giambatista Pozzi.

[edit] Sources

Wittkower, Rudolf (1993). "Art and Architecture Italy, 1600-1750", Pelican History of Art, 1980, Penguin Books, pp. 98-102.
Stoppa, Jacopo (2003). Il Morazzone.
Abate Luigi Antonio, Lanzi (1822). in 4th Edition: Storia Pittorica della Italia dal Risorgimento delle Belle Arti Fin Presso al Fini del XVIII Secolo (Tomo Quarto). Presso Filippo Marchini, Florence; From Bodleian Library, Oxford; digitized by Googlebooks Apr 30, 2007, pages 204-205.