BECCAFUMI, DOMENICO

Domenico Beccafumi had a significant role in the development of the Man­nerist style in sixteenth-century painting in central Italy. Noted as a painter in Siena in 1507, Beccafumi probably studied painting in a mediocre workshop there. Around 1510-12 Beccafumi went to Rome for the first time. The impact of his Roman experience was immediate and long-lasting, with references to the art of Raphael,* Michelangelo,* Baldassare Peruzzi,* and antique Rome visible in his art. Beccafumi was also heavily influenced by the Florentine artist Fra Bartolomeo, as seen in his painting of the Stigmatization of Saint Catherine (c. 1515, Siena, Pinacoteca). In 1519 Beccafumi began creating a series of designs for the pavement of the cathedral of Siena.A probable second trip to Rome updated Beccafumi on the latest innovations there, as evidenced in his St. Mi­chael Evicting the Rebel Angels (c. 1524, Siena, Pinacoteca), which shows the influence of Michelangelo's Last Judgment. At the same time, Beccafumi bal­anced the Roman influence with his own personal style consisting of liquid and loose brushstrokes, vivid colors, contrasts of light and shadow, elongated figures, and an evanescent elegance.

Testifying to his growing reputation, in 1529 the Sienese government com­missioned Beccafumi to provide some decorations for the communal palace and entrusted him with the organization of the festive decorations for the entrance of Emperor Charles V,* and Andrea Doria invited Beccafumi to Genoa to par­ticipate in the decoration of his palace. As a mature artist in the 1530s, Beccafumi felt free to experiment, and the fantastic element may be seen as overtaking reality in his art as he adopted an irrational system of lighting with sudden bursts of light, exaggerated contrasts, and transparent color. This un­realistic use of light combined with Beccafumi's fluid and loose painting manner and unique mixture of Roman classical learning and anticlassical experimenta­tion gave his art an impalpable and elusive quality, making him a highly original painter.

Domenico Beccafumi e il suo tempo, exhibition catalog, 1990.

(1485-1551)

   Sienese Mannerist painter who began his career by following the Sienese tradition of the late 15th century, a style he abandoned once he was exposed to the art Michelangelo and Raphael had created in Rome. The composition of Beccafumi's Stigmatization of St. Catherine of Siena (c. 1518; Siena, Pinacoteca Nazionale), meant for the Benedictine Convent of Monte Olivieto, depends on Raphael's symmetrical arrangements. The earth tones and use of sfumato he borrowed from Leonardo da Vinci, and the sculptural forms from Michelangelo. Yet, while his representation owes debt to the greatest masters of the High Renaissance, it is nevertheless an anticlassical image without central focus. It also features unrealistic proportions and an extreme low placement of the background city, elements that classify the work as Mannerist. Beccafumi's Christ in Limbo (c. 1535; Siena Pinacoteca Nazionale) represents his mature style. Here he created a complex composition with a large number of figures arranged in a semicircle, not the usual Renaissance pyramid or other geometric arrangement. The figures in the foreground are heavily foreshortened and the scene seems to move up rather than back. These illogical elements are what place Beccafumi among the great masters of the Mannerist style.