Rosso Fiorentino (1495-1540)
Madonna col Bambino e cherubini (Madonna and Child with Cherubs)
1520s
Oil on canvas transferred from panel, 111 x 75.5 cm
Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg
The Florentine Mannerist Rosso Fiorentino developed at an early age an extravagant, experimental style that was not immediately accepted by his contemporaries. He was obliged to leave his native city in search of commissions, and when he returned in 1522, his manner had become calmer and clearer, more harmonious. His human types had become more attractive and the mood more lyrical. Rosso Fiorentino with quite deliberate calculation chose as his guiding star Raphael, who was at that time the most highly venerated Italian artist.The prototype for The Virgin and the Child with Angels was an engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi connected with Raphael’s famed Madonna of Foligno. Rosso Fiorentino displays a line of continuity from Raphael in the structure of the composition and the figures’ poses and gestures. In everything else, he demonstrates complete independence from him, interpreting the celebrated prototype in a very unconstrained, individual way, even with barely concealed irony. While imitating Raphael out of necessity, the artist remains true to his own eccentric manner. (SHM)