Cristofano Allori

Cristofano Allori, Bronzino also the Younger ( born October 17, 1577 Florence, † April 2, 1621 ) was an Italian painter.

Life and work

Allori's father and teacher was next to Santi di Tito Alessandro Allori. In its development, Allori, however remote of Mannerism, which belonged to his father, and opened up to the Bolognese school. He painted altarpieces for Florentine churches and numerous portraits. His main work is Judith with the Head of Holofernes, which symbolizes a fatal passion for him. From this work there are several copies, one in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence ( 1610, oil on canvas) and one in the Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace in London ( 1613, oil on canvas). Another copy is in the Berlin Gemäldegalerie and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Allori worked on each of his paintings with great care, as his numerous sketches and the fineness of detail drawing show. The constant training models such as Antonio da Correggio, Lodovico Cigoli and Santi di Tito, he combined with an intense, often months-long model and nature study. Although such thoroughness prevented a more extensive work, enabled the painter but as outstanding performance as Judith with the Head of Holofernes, where he presumably his mistress Mazzafirra and their mother portrayed. The pose of Judith, her detailed crafted satin dress, and the contrast between the two women's faces could exert its fine, some of the chiaroscuro lighting and color effectively it. In addition, however is also in the figure representation and in the scenic arrangement - such as in the picture Jupiter and Mercury - clearly the distance to the mannerists about to Rosso Fiorentino.

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