Federico Barocci (1526/35-1612) Biography
Federico Barocci, also known as Baroccio il Fiori, was an Italian painter born in Urbino in 1535 (however his date of birth is not certain). His elegant and refined art makes him one of the greatest exponents of Italian Mannerism and the art of the Counter-Reformation, also considered one of the precursors of the Baroque.
Descended from a Lombard family (his ancestor was the sculptor Ambrogio Barocci, active in the 15th century), Barocci is an artist of great importance in the period of art during the Counter-Reformation, between Correggio and Caravaggio.
His career developed mainly in Rome, where he had a fast and brilliant start, inspired by Raphael and much admired by Michelangelo.
Barocci left Rome due to an alleged jealous poisoning and returned to his hometown of Urbino in 1565. He remained there in a voluntary retreat, interrupted only by contacts with the numerous clients scattered throughout Italy. He came under the protection of Francesco Maria II della Rovere, Duke of Urbino. The Doge's Palace is often present in his paintings, rendered in a forced perspective that seems an anticipation of future Baroque painting. Barocci was also a good portraitist and immortalized the duke in a canvas preserved in the Uffizi.
Although far from Rome, where he could exchange artistic experiences and find success, in Urbino, a city in decline and close to being annexed to the Papal States, but animated by a cultural liveliness thanks to scientific studies, Barocci managed to obtain important commissions for his altarpieces.
Barocci's enveloping composition and his interest in the spiritual world and emotional effect are elements that herald Rubens' Baroque. In the "Beata Michelina" one can see the ecstatic expression, the animated drapery, the unity of the figure with the divine light, the receiving hands: Barocci seems to introduce the palpable drama of the Baroque more than any other artist of his time.
