PRIMATICCIO, FRANCESCO

Francesco Primaticcio was the most influential Italian artist working in France in the sixteenth century. Born and trained in Bologna, where the influence of Raphael* was preeminent, Primaticcio worked as a painter, stuccoist, and ar­chitect. He was invited to Paris in 1532 by Francois I,* who hoped to introduce the Renaissance to French art, and spent the rest of his career as a court artist. Primaticcio was installed at the royal chateau of Fontainebleau, where he pro­ceeded to develop a Mannerist style influenced by Correggio,* Michelangelo,* and Parmigianino.* His primary responsibility was to direct the decoration of the chateau. He produced architectural ornamentation in both paint and stucco; few of the paintings have survived, but many of the stuccos are preserved in good condition.The Gallery of Francois I, decorated in partnership with Rosso Fiorentino* (1530s), combines painting and sculpture in an elaborate program of mythological scenes. Typical elements of Mannerist art, such as elongated figures, unreadable space, and serpentine poses, are found in both narratives and framing elements. The style is highly sophisticated, artificial, and erotic.

Works of the 1540s (e.g., the Gallery of Ulysses, late 1540s, destroyed 1738) appear to have continued the taste Primaticcio established in his first works at Fontainebleau. Ornate and complex, they reveal the artist adding illusionism and drama to his mannered compositions. By the 1550s Primaticcio was established as the leading court artist, and his work was more and more limited to direction rather than execution. Seen primarily as a decorator, he was highly influential in the introduction of Italian and antique aesthetic ideas to French artistic circles.

S. Beguin, Fontainebleau: L'art en France, 1528-1610, 1973.