Existing comment:
Parmigianino, Rosso Fiorentino, and Caraglio
After the sudden and premature death of Raphael in 1520, two young and extremely talented artists, Francesco Mazzola, called Parmigianino (1503 – 1540), and Giovanni Battista di Jacopo, known as Rosso Fiorentino (1494 – 1540), moved to Rome to study its artistic treasures, seek patronage, and advance their budding careers. They both followed Raphael's example by collaborating with printmakers to publish their designs, primarily with Gian Jacopo Caraglio (c. 1500 – 1565), who was evidently associated with Raphael's workshop. Parmigianino even made prints himself in the recently introduced technique of etching, something Raphael had never attempted. Crucially, only the works that Parmigianino and Rosso broadcast in print (as opposed to their paintings) were ever copied on maiolica, highlighting the vital role prints played in shaping the artists' public image.
Other artists from Raphael's circle, such as his pupil Giulio Romano (1499 – 1546) and Baldassare Peruzzi (1481 – 1537), continued to collaborate with printmakers from Raphael's workshop into the 1520s. Together, the Roman prints produced in that decade contributed to spreading and popularizing an emergent style often referred to as mannerism. In general, mannerist artists rejected the rational balance, realism, and classical proportions of the previous generation in favor of elegant distortions, fanciful compositions, and an emphasis on artifice and the idiosyncrasies of personal style. |