Barocci, Federico (ca. 1526–1612)

One of the leading Italian artists of the early Baroque period. Born as Federico Fiori in Urbino, he studied with his uncle, Bartolomeo Genga. Barocci moved to Rome in his twenties and, while training with a minor painter named Taddeo Zuccaro, came under the influence of Raphael. Barocci also studied the works of Correggio, who used warm colors in a graceful, flowing design. In Rome Barocci learned the demanding skill of copper engraving and also became a portraitist and fresco painter. In Rome he was commissioned to paint frescoes at the Vatican and also completed a Last Supper in the church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva. While decorating a ceiling at the Vatican for Pope Pius IV, however, he came down with a case of food poisoning that he feared was a deliberate attack by jealous rivals.

Soon afterward Barocci retreated to Urbino, where for the rest of his life he remained under the protection and patronage of the Duke of Urbino, Francesco Della Rovere, for whom Barocci did a striking portrait. Barocci was an extremely slow and methodical painter, but his works show soft lights, a confident ability to draw and position figures, a full range of colors and an ingenious use of light, much in contrast to the darker and more somber works of many of his contemporaries, including the more widely acclaimed Michelangelo da Caravaggio. Among art historians, Barocci is known as much for his sketches and drawings as for his paintings, as the studies and cartoons he completed before putting his brush to canvas are as skillfully performed as his full-scale completed works. For his sketches, Barocci used the new medium of colored pastel, which has remained a favorite method of modern painters.

Devoted to the cause of the Catholic Church, Barocci was an ardent supporter of the Counter-Reformation, which was an attempt by the church to return Protestant lands to Catholic control. He became a member of the Capuchin religious order and completed two major altarpieces for the mystic preacher Saint Philip Neri: The Visitation and The Presentation of the Virgin. Barocci's Martyrdom of St. Vitale became a strong influence on Baroque painters of Italy and northern Europe in the age following his death.

See Also: Correggio; Michelangelo Buonarroti; Raphael