upright=1.05|thumb|1648 woodcut portrait of Francesco Primaticcio

upright=1.1|thumb|Odysseus and [[Penelope, 1563]]

Francesco Primaticcio (; April 30, 1504 – 1570) was an Italian Mannerist painter, architect and sculptor who spent most of his career in France.

Biography

Born in Bologna, he trained under Giulio Romano in Mantua and became a pupil of Innocenzo da Imola, executing decorations at the Palazzo Te before securing a position in the court of Francis I of France in 1532.

upright=1.1|thumb |Holy Family with St Elizabeth and John the Baptist, now in the [[Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia.]]

thumb|upright=1.1|Ulysses and His Companions Fighting the Cicones Before the City of Ismaros, Study for a destroyed fresco in the Galerie d'Ulysee, Chateau de Fontainebleau

Together with Rosso Fiorentino he was one of the leading artists to work at the Chateau Fontainebleau (where he is grouped with the so-called "First School of Fontainebleau") spending much of his life there. Following Rosso's death in 1540, Primaticcio took control of the artistic direction at Fontainebleau, furnishing the painters and stuccators of his team, such as Nicolò dell'Abate, with designs. He made cartoons for tapestry-weavers and, like all 16th-century court artists, was called upon to design elaborate ephemeral decorations for masques and fêtes, which survive only in preparatory drawings and, sometimes, engravings. Francis I trusted his eye and sent him back to Italy on buying trips in 1540 and again in 1545.

In Rome, part of Primaticcio's commission was to take casts of the best Roman sculptures in the papal collections, some of which were cast in bronze to decorate the parterres at Fontainebleau.

Primaticcio retained his position as court painter to Francis' heirs, Henry II and Francis II. His masterpiece, the Salle d'Hercule at Fontainebleau, occupied him and his team from the 1530s to 1559.

Primaticcio's crowded Mannerist compositions and his long-legged canon of beauty influenced French art for the rest of the century.

Primaticcio turned to architecture towards the end of his life, his greatest work being the Valois Chapel at the Abbey of Saint-Denis, although this was not completed until after his death and was destroyed in 1719.

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Image:Alexander tames Bucephalus by Francesco Primaticcio.jpg | Alexander tames Bucephalus

Image:Rape of Helen by Francesco Primaticcio.jpg | The rape of Helena, 1530-1539

File:Chaalis voute abside.JPG|Ceiling at Chaalis Abbey

File:Chaalis fresque annonciation.JPG | Annunciation at Chaalis

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Engravings by Giorgio Ghisi after Francesco Primaticcio's designs for the ceiling of the Ulysses Gallery (destroyed 1738–39) at Fontainebleau

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File:Apollo, Pan, and a putto blowing a horn, from a series of eight compositions after Francesco Primaticcio's designs for the ceiling of the Ulysses Gallery (destroyed 1738-39) at Fontainebleau MET MM20346.jpg|Apollo, Pan, and a putto blowing a horn

File:Three Muses and a Gesturing Putto, from a series of eight compositions after Francesco Primaticcio's designs for the ceiling of the Ulysses Gallery (destroyed 1738-39) at Fontainebleau MET DP821337.jpg|Three Muses and a Gesturing Putto

File:Three Muses and a Putto with a Lyre, a cruciform composition, from a series of eight compositions after Francesco Primaticcio's designs for the ceiling of the Gallery of Ulysses (destroyed 1738-39) at Fontainebleau MET DP821276.jpg|Three Muses and a Putto with a Lyre, a cruciform composition

File:Three Muses and a Putto with Cymbals, from a series of eight compositions after Francesco Primaticcio's designs for the ceiling of the Ulysses Gallery (destroyed 1738-39) at Fontainebleau MET DP821339.jpg|Three Muses and a Putto with Cymbals

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File:Hercules, Bacchus, Pan, and Saturn(?), from a series of eight compositions after Francesco Primaticcio's designs for the ceiling of the Ulysses Gallery (destroyed 1738-39) at Fontainebleau MET DP821346.jpg|Hercules, Bacchus, Pan, and Saturn(?)

File:Ceres Seated on Clouds with Two Goddesses and Two Putti, from a series of eight compositions after Francesco Primaticcio's designs for the ceiling of the Ulysses Gallery (destroyed 1738-39) at Fontainebleau MET DP821331.jpg|Ceres Seated on Clouds with Two Goddesses and Two Putti

File:Pluto, Neptune, Minerva and Apollo, from a series of eight compositions after Francesco Primaticcio's designs for the ceiling of the Ulysses Gallery (destroyed 1738-39) at Fontainebleau MET DP821333.jpg|Pluto, Neptune, Minerva and Apollo

File:Venus and Cupid, Two Other Goddesses, and a Putto, from a series of eight compositions after Francesco Primaticcio's designs for the ceiling of the Ulysses Gallery (destroyed 1738-39) at Fontainebleau MET DP821328.jpg|Venus and Cupid, Two Other Goddesses, and a Putto

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Notes

References

The Oxford Dictionary of Art,

  • Entry in 'Art-cyclopedia'
  • Château de Fontainebleau (in English)
  • The engravings of Giorgio Ghisi, a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which contains material on Francesco Primaticcio (see index)