Allegory of Salvation with the Virgin and Christ Child, St. Elizabeth, the Young St. John the Baptist and Two Angels

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Allegory of Salvation with the Virgin and Christ Child, St. Elizabeth, the Young St. John the Baptist and Two Angels

circa 1521
Paintings
Oil on wood panel
Panel: 63 1/2 × 47 in. (161.29 × 119.38 cm) Framed: 83 × 71 × 6 in. (210.82 × 180.34 × 15.24 cm)
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Herbert T. Kalmus (54.6)
Not currently on public view

Curator Notes

Rosso Fiorentino was trained in the Florentine High Renaissance tradition, but reacted against its emphasis on beauty, balance, and harmony....
Rosso Fiorentino was trained in the Florentine High Renaissance tradition, but reacted against its emphasis on beauty, balance, and harmony. As an early mannerist artist, he instead painted asymmetrical, emotionally charged compositions. His work was admired by the poet Aretino, and Rosso was named painter to the king of France. He died in France, possibly by suicide. The subject of this unfinished painting is still unknown. The woman in blue at the right is the Virgin; she holds the frightened Christ Child in her arms. At the left the young Saint John the Baptist reclines in a troubled sleep and almost appears to be dead. The identity of the old woman at the left is unclear. She may be Saint Anne (mother of the Virgin), Saint Elizabeth (mother of John the Baptist), or a Sibyl from classical mythology who foretold the future. This haunting image is one of the museum's masterpieces. Mannerist artists often were influenced by other works of art. Here Rosso portrayed the young Saint John in a posture reminiscent of the dead Christ in Michelangelo's Pietà, a source easily recognized by viewers of the day, but Rosso abstracted the figures to project an intensely personal vision. His rapid application of the paint, more noticeable because the painting is unfinished, reinforces the work's uneasy urgency and visionary quality.
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Bibliography

  • Keith, Larry, Marta Melchiorre Di Crescenzo, Markia Spring, and Nelly Von Aderkas. "A Knight of Saint John by Rosso Fiorentino: a Restoration in Context." National Gallery Technical Bulletin 38 (2017): 6-17.
  • Keith, Larry, Marta Melchiorre Di Crescenzo, Markia Spring, and Nelly Von Aderkas. "A Knight of Saint John by Rosso Fiorentino: a Restoration in Context." National Gallery Technical Bulletin 38 (2017): 6-17.
  • Garrard, Mary D. "Michelangelo and the Gaze of Medusa." Artibus et Historiae 77 (2018): 201-230.
  • Schaefer, Scott, and Peter Fusco. European Painting and Sculpture in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art: an Illustrated Summary Catalogue. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1987.
  • Price, Lorna.  Masterpieces from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  Los Angeles:  Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1988.
  • Davis, Bruce. Mannerist Prints: International Style in the Sixteenth Century. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1988.


    View this publication in LACMA's Reading Room

  • Caroselli, Susan L. Italian Panel Painting of the Early Renaissance. Los Angeles: Museum Associates, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1994.

    View this publication in LACMA's Reading Room

  • Beckett, Sister Wendy.  Sister Wendy's American Collection, Toby Eady Associates, ed.  Harper Collins Publishers, 2000.
  • Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  New York: Thames and Hudson, 2003.
  • Nagel, Alexander. The Controversy of Renaissance Art. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011.
  • Falciani, Carlo and Antonio Natali, eds. Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino: Diverging Paths of Mannerism. Firenze: Mandragora, 2014.
  • Marandel, J. Patrice. Abecedario: Collecting and Recollecting. Los Angeles: Art Catalogues; LACMA, 2017.

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