Francesco Furini
(1603 - 1646) |
|
religious narratives, mythological narratives Art Work
| Name: |
Francesco Furini |
| Gender: |
Male |
| Place of Birth: |
Florence, Italy |
| Nationality: |
Italian |
| Birth: |
1603 |
| Death: |
1646 |
| Website: |
|
| Past Auctions: |
Click Here |
|
|
Quick Facts
| Known For: |
religious narratives, mythological narratives |
| Medium: |
fresco |
| Method: |
fresco |
| Style: |
Italian Baroque |
| Fine Art Profession(s): |
Painter
|
|
|
Biography
After training with his father Filippo Furini, a portrait painter (also called Pippo Sciamerone), Furini studied with Passignano, Biliverti, and later with Rosselli. Furini left for Rome in 1619, where he worked with Giovanni da San Giovanni,whom he had befriended while in Rosselli's shop, assisting on his frescoes commissioned in 1623 for the Palazzo Bentivoglio.
Furini returned to Florence in 1622. In 1625 he became a member of the Florentine Academy. He reportedly produced his first independent work for Vicchio di Mugello, decorating in fresco the fictive architecture for the chapel of the high altar of S. Proclo in Florence. Between 1627 and 1628 he collaborated in the decoration of the Casa Buonarotti. Furini became popular with Florentine aristocracy by specializing in biblical or mythological scenes peopled with sensuous, mostly nude women set in vaporous, often dreamlike settings. Their pale bodies often emerge out of a foggy darkness, engaging our sense of touch by moving in or out of water. Reportedly nearly bankrupted by his quest for the beautiful models, Furini spared no expense on materials. He favored costly ultramarine blue, which he sometimes played off against a deep, sinister red, a color combination which contributes to the sensuous effect of his images.
Furini's fame brought him an invitation to Venice around 1629. There he spent six months executing a Thetis as a companion piece for Reni's Europa. In 1639 he was commissioned to complete the frescoes left unfinished by Giovanni da San Giovanni at his death in 1636. These frescoes in the Sala degli Argenti in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence, include his Allegory on the Death of Lorenzo II Magnifico and show his continuation of Giovanni da San Giovanni's approach. With their agitated, movemented compositions, Furini's fresco has been called one of the few truly baroque paintings in Florence.
Furini entered a new phase of his life in 1644 when he joined the priesthood of S. Ansano near Borgo S. Lorenzo in Mugello. Baldinucci explains this as a moral crisis, during this period Furini produced only religious works consisting mainly of altarpieces done for the local churches. Furini's priestly orientation was relatively shortlived, for he returned to Florence and took up his earlier, more sensuous subjects once more. He also occasionally executed likenesses, of which his Portrait of Vittoria della Rovere Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi, is one of the few surviving examples. In his later years, Furini had an important commission to decorate the Villa Salviati, which was finished by another hand upon his death. His most famous pupil was Simone Pignone. |
Samples of Work
|
|
