{"id":9031,"date":"2014-03-13T09:17:57","date_gmt":"2014-03-13T08:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arttrav.com\/?p=9031"},"modified":"2017-03-21T15:19:10","modified_gmt":"2017-03-21T14:19:10","slug":"rosso-fiorentino-strozzi-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arttrav.com\/florence\/rosso-fiorentino-strozzi-review\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s up with Rosso Fiorentino?"},"content":{"rendered":"

While it would be easy to wax poetic on the beauty of Pontormo’s Visitation <\/em>and the attractive red walls that so nicely complement the paintings in Palazzo Strozzi’s <\/strong>exhibition “Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino<\/strong>, diverging paths of Mannerism<\/strong>,” the show made me feel the need to deal with a difficult question: what’s up with Rosso?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Detail
Detail of Rosso Fiorentino, Spedalingo Altarpiece (Uffizi), top half<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Curators Antonio Natali and Carlo Falciani force us to look closely<\/strong> at the works of these two Florentine contemporaries, highlighting their differences and in the process informing a more general public of recent scholarly consensus that the overarching label of Mannerism provides no more than a chronological framework. Suddenly we’re faced with an almost jarring comparison<\/strong> between two artists who were born in the same year, received the same initial training, but had different political alliances and would take divergent stylistic paths. While Pontormo’s work is graceful and luscious (no wonder the Medici loved him), Rosso Fiorentino’s ragged awkwardness is hard for the modern viewer to digest. Yet something must have made Rosso appealing to contemporaries, enough to be hired by numerous patrons, including the French king.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Struggling with Rosso Fiorentino<\/h2>\n

I am not the only one to find Rosso Fiorentino hard to understand<\/strong>. I went through the press preview with my friend and colleague Alexandra Lawrence (editor at large of The Florentine and licensed guide to Florence), who is a patient and informed viewer. Together we tried to get to the bottom of Rosso’s stylistic quirks, doggedly reading wall text and taking our time to work things out. She admitted that she’d hoped to gain some insight into this artist that would help her explain it to visitors at the Uffizi, where the Spedalingo Altarpiece<\/em> and other works by Rosso are displayed.<\/p>\n

\"Comparison
Comparison between works by Pontormo, Andrea del Sarto and Rosso Fiorentino at Palazzo Strozzi.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Author Jasper Rees reviews the show<\/a> in a way that reveals his undying love for Pontormo, and we got talking on Twitter about our reactions to Rosso:<\/p>\n

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Thanks, @arttrav<\/a>. Always been pazzo abt Pontormo, never got Rosso. View not changed by @palazzostrozzi<\/a> show @thebenstreet<\/a> @FisunGuner<\/a><\/p>\n

— Jasper Rees (@JasperRees) March 11, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n