— Descent
from the Cross (1521, 375x196cm) _ In this work the main character is
the color, and the color is devoted to one end: a violent and emotional
expressiveness which overrides everything else, and seeks only to provoke
in the spectator a thrill of horror and grief comparable with that which
shattered the men and women who helped to lift Christ from the Cross and
bury Him. The drawing is not conceived as a means of describing forms, but
as a means of stating ideas. The light is not a normal illumination nor
even a poetic evocation: the scene is lit as if by lightning, and in the
blinding flash the figures are frozen in their attitudes and even in their
thoughts, while the great limp body of the dead Christ, livid green with
reddish hair and beard, dangles perilously as his dead weight almost slips
from the grasp of the men straining on the ladders. This painting shows,
as the Pontormo Deposition does, some influence of Michelangelo's Roman
Pietà, but the Christ of the Deposition is far more closely
connected with a drawing for a Pietà which Michelangelo made in
1520, and which haunted Rosso to the end of his life. _ Detail 1
_ detail 2
Validating the theory that Rosso spent some time in Rome, presumably between
1518 and 1521, are clear references to the frescoes of the Sistine ceiling.
One of the references is the use of the gesture of Eve expelled from the
Paradise for the posture of the figure of Saint John. This red-haired young
man, who buries his hands in an expression of intense anguish, has been
interpreted as a "self-portrait denied" of Rosso, who by including this
figure in the painting is thus personally involved in the event represented.
Examples of this exist in more or less contemporary northern figurative
art, in Dürer particularly, who has been identified as one of the most probable
sources of inspiration for the painting and to whom some facial characterizations
are referable. _ Detail 3
In addition to his pictorial originality, Rosso also had considerable technical
skill as is demonstrated in this detail. By this time the Florentines were
using oil paint effectively, but their approach depended upon a thinner,
highly fluid application of the paint rather than the thick impastos used
by their Venetian contemporaries.
— Deposition
from the Cross (1528, 270x201cm) _ This painting was commissioned in
1527 by the Confraternity of Santa Croce, and was probably finished before
1 July 1528. Compared with the preceding Deposition in Volterra, to which
the painting refers in the figure of the deposer on the left descending
one of the three ladders resting against the cross, and in the curly-haired
young Saint John, portrayed in the background burying his face in his hands,
as in the Volterra altarpiece, the Deposition of San Sepolcro places a greater
emphasis on the figure of Christ, who has been taken down from the cross
and is now lying in the Virgin's lap in the foreground. A reference to the
molded characterization of Michelangelo's anatomies is visible in the bodies
of Rosso's painting; observe, for example, the youth standing to the right
of the Virgin bending slightly forward in the act of holding up Christ's
back. The light which covers the foreground of the composition and contrasts
with the dark background is brightest in the clothing of this figure, highlighting
its refined golden-yellow floral motif, and produces the extraordinary changing
color effects of the dress of the bystander seated in the foreground to
the left of Mary Magdalene. More than for the reelaboration of elements
associated with the art of Dürer and the great masters of classicism, the
San Sepolcro Deposition is distinguished by a number of iconographical peculiarities.
The most striking is the complete nudity of the body of Jesus, a clear break
with tradition, emphasis being given to the ample volume of its swollen
ribcage. Transferring to the Virgin, the iconography which from the 14th
century in Italy was traditionally used to represent Mary Magdalene, Ross
portrays the mother of Christ with her arms splayed and held up, as if she
herself was reliving the moment of crucifixion; the expression of the crucified
Jesus seems in fact to be impressed upon the face of Mary, who is now prostrate
with grief. Behind her, the horrible animal-like figure directing his squint-eyed
gaze away from the scene probably takes up the theme of the bodyguard, the
symbol of the treachery and wickedness that determined the killing of Christ,
and also present in the Volterra Deposition. — Detail
Transferring to the Virgin, the iconography which from the 14th century
in Italy was traditionally used to represent Mary Magdalene, Ross portrays
the mother of Christ with her arms splayed and held up, as if she herself
was reliving the moment of crucifixion; the expression of the crucified
Jesus seems in fact to be impressed upon the face of Mary, who is now prostrate
with grief. Behind her, the horrible animal-like figure directing his squint-eyed
gaze away from the scene probably takes up the theme of the bodyguard, the
symbol of the treachery and wickedness that determined the killing of Christ.
— Pietà
(1540, 125x159cm) _ Rosso addressed the theme of the dead Christ again towards
the end of his artistic career when, after completing the decoration of
the Gallery at Fontainebleau for François I, painted the Pietà. The painting
once hung above the door of the chapel of the High Constable Anne de Montmorency
in the castle of Ecouen. The painting, of all the works executed by Rosso
during his stay in France (1530-1540), is the only surviving example that
is certainly original. The painting is a "close-up" of the body of Christ,
which extends across the whole width of the composition, literally filling
the pictorial space. Christ's body, having taken down from the cross, of
which there is no trace in the composition, and from the maternal lap, is
elegantly placed on a cushion lying on the ground. Behind the body of Jesus
the Virgin opens her arms and collapses into the arms of one of the pious
women. Light shines in the foreground of the composition, highlighting,
compared with the dark background, the various shades of red in the clothing,
which contrast with the white of the scarf surrounding the upper part of
Mary's dress, and the delicate lace of Mary Magdalene's dress, in which
the golden yellow of the sleeve stands out.
— Dead
Christ with Angels (1526, 134x104cm) _ Rosso executed this remarkable
painting for Bishop Leonardo Tornabuoni, a Florentine by birth. One of the
striking formal characteristics of this painting is the highly refined modeling
of the bodies, which become extraordinarily soft under the effect of a warm,
intense light. The artist had clearly abandoned his taste for the sharp-cornered
angularities that characterize the linear structure of his Florentine and
Volterran works, which are, on the other hand, recalled in the varied range
of complementary colors, with their delicate changing color effects. Christ's
naked body has undeniable similarities with works by Michelangelo: the Vatican
Pietà and the Risen Christ from the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva.
What interested Rosso in this case, however, over and beyond the literal
translation of Michelangelo's figurative ideas, was to exalt the beauty
of the human body, which, following the example of the illustrious model,
is accurately portrayed down to the very last detail. The total nakedness
of Christ's body, not entirely free of a note of sexuality, forms part of
this same tendency. The handsome young body, languidly and sensually slumped
in a serene repose, and literally dominating the pictorial composition,
retains little of the traditional iconography of the dead Christ, being
closer to the pagan representation of the figure of Adonis. Indeed, the
signs of Christ's martyrdom, which dramatically concluded the earthly existence
of God's son, are barely hinted at in the painting: the small wound in his
side touched by the hand of an angel, the thin crown of thorns surrounding
the head of the Redeemer, and the rod with the sponge soaked in vinegar
and the nails, depicted along the lower edge of the painting.
— Risen
Christ (1530, 348x258cm) _ This painting for the Cathedral of the provincial
Umbrian town of Città di Castello depicts the risen Christ with saints below.
Rosso has moved toward a more mechanistic composition on a monumental scale.
Created in an irregular octagonal format, the picture retains a strong vertical
emphasis. Separate figures and incidents, along with the idiosyncratic treatment
of the parts, overwhelm the impact of the composition as a whole.
— Moses
Defending the Daughters of Jethro (1524, 160x117cm) _ Among Rosso's
paintings concerned with the representation of themes belonging to the religious
iconographical tradition, this painting is a very special case, not least
due to the rarity of the subject. The title of the painting refers to an
episode of Moses's youth narrated in the book of Exodus (II, 16-22). The
seven daughters of Jethro, priest of the land of Midian, while drawing water
from a well and filling troughs to water their father's flock, are troubled
by a group of Midianite shepherds who take advantage of the labors of the
young women to water their own herds. Moses, sitting near the well, witnesses
the scene; driving the Midianites away with threats he intervenes physically
in defense of Jethro's daughters who thanks to his help can finally water
their flocks. In recognition of the meritorious action performed by the
young Moses, Jethro gives him the hand of one of his daughters, Zipporah.
There are unequivocal references in the painting to the two cartoons made
by Michelangelo and Leonardo for the decoration of the Great Council Hall
in Palazzo della Signoria. Rosso's canvas reproposes the extremely articulated
compositional structure of Michelangelo's Battle of Cascina, displaying
a broad range of nude figure poses which reflect the artist's predilection
for counterpoise. The emphasizing of gestures and clothing, and the impassioned
savagery of the actions and expressions, on the other hand, are associated
with Leonardo's Battle of Anghiari. _ Detail
The detail shows Zipporah, one of the daughters of Jethro. This painting
is one of the principal works of the maturity of the painter. The obvious
inspiration from Michelangelo is surpassed by the intense compression of
the various plastic planes which become shining planes of color In their
brilliant chromatic polish and in the tangle of the masses in violent "contrapposto"
there is an unreal smoothness which tends towards a visionary effect.
— Young
Man
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