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Biography

(b Florence, 1 March 1494; d Florence, 1557). Italian painter and draughtsman. He belonged to the generation of Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino, but, with a conservative disposition and limited talents, he never regarded style as a vehicle for creative expression as much as they did. His contribution to the evolution of Mannerism is, nevertheless, the central issue for critics of his work. Although he studied with Perugino and was heavily influenced by him, he did ... (view more)

Grove Art excerpts - Electronic ©2003, Oxford Art Online

(b Florence, 1 March 1494; d Florence, 1557). Italian painter and draughtsman. He belonged to the generation of Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino, but, with a conservative disposition and limited talents, he never regarded style as a vehicle for creative expression as much as they did. His contribution to the evolution of Mannerism is, nevertheless, the central issue for critics of his work. Although he studied with Perugino and was heavily influenced by him, he did not demonstrate an exclusive allegiance to any one style even in his earliest works. In Adam and Eve with their Children (c. 1517; Philadelphia, PA, Mus. A.), for example, the figures of the parents are borrowed from Perugino’s Apollo and Marsyas (Paris, Louvre), but the landscape comes from Albrecht Dürer’s print of Adam and Eve (1504) and the children are taken from God Appearing to Noah , engraved by Marcantonio Raimondi. The curious transformation of Perugino’s Apollo into Eve is telling evidence of Bacchiacca’s unfamiliarity with the nude, a shortcoming he never overcame. Throughout his career, he effected a compromise between conservative and progressive elements. His reference to a northern print in Adam and Eve suggests an acquaintance with advanced practices then current in Florence. Perhaps the most lasting legacy of his training with Perugino was the habit of relating form and content only superficially. While other artists of his generation employed a variety of sources to achieve a creative synthesis, Bacchiacca’s eclecticism remained merely a pragmatic solution to the problem of providing a wide variety of characters for his scenes.  (hide)

Grove Art excerpts - Electronic ©2003, Oxford Art Online

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