Our next drawing was copied from the Italian artist Federico Barocci. The original was done with chalk and is described as “Studies for the Martyrdom of San Vitale” and can be found at the Staatliche Museen, Berlin. My copy was done in pencil and can be found in my hall closet. I couldn’t find a copy of the drawing on the Staatliche Museen website but a similar one can be found by clicking here. Federico Barocci’s painting of the “Martyrdom of San Vitale” can be found in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan. Since I haven’t talked about Federico Barocci in previous posts, let’s learn a little about this guy. I found the following information on the www.oxfordbibliographies.com website. Is it a reliable website? Well, it has the word ‘oxford’ in it so I guess so. Not only that but it also has the word ‘bibliographies’ in it which contains many syllables. You put them together and you can’t go wrong.
Since I haven’t talked about Federico Barocci…
Federico Barocci was the most well-known and well-paid Italian artist during the later 16th and early 17th centuries. He came from a successful artisan family in Urbino. He later traveled to Rome through his elder countryman Taddeo Zuccaro and received a papal commission. In the meantime, he received local commissions, resulting in his breakthrough Deposition in Perugia Cathedral in 1569. In addition to the altarpieces he provided in Arezzo and Ravenna, Barocci also received important Roman commissions that cemented his reputation. Although distorted human figures of the Mannerist style were still popular at that time, Barocci created his figures from direct observation. He used many drawings and studies to create carefully constructed paintings. Perhaps due to the sentimentality of his paintings, Barocci’s reputation declined in the 18th century. As a result, there is not much written about Federico Barocci, despite the fact that research has grown substantially in recent years and today Federico Barocci is considered one of the most brilliant draftsmen of his time.