Federico Barocci

Federico Barocci was an Italian painter at the turn of the 16th century whose work represents the transition from Renaissance to Baroque painting styles. Barocci was a fragile, paranoid figure who believed that prayer to the Virgin Mary healed him from an illness he suspected resulted from food poisoned by his artistic rivals. Though there is no evidence for this, his passion for biblical figures and the Virgin in particular is evident by his bright, lively paintings.

As a young artist, Barocci was exposed to the then-avant-garde Mannerist style. Although his figures are proportional and not elongated like those of a Mannerist painter, critics believe his exposure to the style accounts for his dramatic renderings of perspective and his bold use of bright colors. Barocci is well-known for the extensive preparatory drawings and sketches for his paintings, allowing scholars to study his meticulous process, often undetectable in his final works.

Barocci’s passion for Catholicism in the wake of the Counter-Reformation is thought to be expressed by his swirling compositions as they capture an overwhelming spiritual world so complex and divine that the human eye can barely keep up. His intense details and colors and poignant subjects are known to have influenced Peter Paul Rubens, one of the eminent figures of Baroque painting born 40 years after Barocci.