uffizi room 60 di rosso fiorentino

Giovanni Battista di Jacopo, known as Rosso Fiorentino, was a student of Andrea del Sarto together with the likewise famous Pontormo. Both of them, unlike their teacher, show their awareness of the insufficiency of traditional art and expressive inadequacy of the classical doctrines in their painting and, thus, the aspiration to a freer, more suggestive art that leaves room for real states of mind, even though tormented and painful.

A wonderful example of painting by Rosso is Moses defending the Daughters of Jethro, in which the nude and semi-nude figures are depicted in statuesque, very couped poses, which clearly shows the study of anatomy.

The artist was expressing his protest against traditional art, above all through the colour that deforms figures and space, thus altering the classical vision, as can be seen in the Madonna and Child and Saints and Putto Playing (or Musical Angel).

Book now Uffizi Tickets