Born: March 8, 1494 in Florence, Italy. Died: November 14, 1540 in Paris, France.
He spent most of his life in Florence and Rome, but spent the majority of his career in France.
He was exposed and started learning about the arts when very young.
Became wealthy when he got to France. (lifestyle)
He preferred engravings, etchings, and drawings, rather than painting.
Many of his works were in textbooks and he was inspired strongly by Raphael and Michelangelo. Francis I was one of his patrons at Fontainebleau.
This piece is a lesson told through a morbid scene. The truth of life and death according to Fiorentino, are revealed. It uses the drama of the disturbing figures to call upon the viewers emotions.
Created in the 1520's, exact date unknown. (Possibly in 1517 as it shows in the drawing.)
Currently at the Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio.
The significance of the piece is the accuracy and detail of the human skeletons and the mystifying ghostly figures. It also express's Fiorentino's inner emotions, torment and rage but we are unsure of the cause.
This piece really stood out to me because it is not a painting, it is an engraving. It is only one color, an orange-brown, and the incredible accuracy of the people and skeletons and ghosts. What also stood out to me was the specific detailing in the shading.
The piece exemplifies the ideas of humanism and cynicism. Humanism is the ideas and beliefs in human emotion and rationalism over religion, it shows the different forms of the body, living, then skeleton, then ghost. This is a representation of how people die naturally instead of some outside force causing their death. Example: if they sinned, they would be sent to hell. It also represents cynicism because cynicism is defined as an inclination to believe that people are motivated purely by self-interest; also seen as skepticism. The skepticism of the truth of death is expressed.
Fun Facts: Fiorentino's work was later finished by Agostino Musi in 1518.
Works Cited:
Fiorentino, Rosso. Macabre Allegory. 1517. Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio.
Musi, Agostino. Allegory of Death and Fame. 1518. Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio.
"Rosso Fiorentino." International Dictionary of Art and Artists. Gale, 1990. Biography in Context. Web. 5 Dec. 2016.