Cristofano Allori (17 October 1577 – 1 April 1621) was an Italian painter of the late Florentine

Mannerist Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, ...

school, painting mostly portraits and religious subjects. Allori was born at

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

and received his first lessons in painting from his father,

Alessandro Allori Alessandro di Cristofano di Lorenzo del Bronzino Allori (Florence, 31 May 153522 September 1607) was an Italian painter of the late Mannerist Florentine school. Biography In 1540, after the death of his father, Allori was brought up and train ...

, but becoming dissatisfied with the hard anatomical drawing and cold coloring of the latter, he entered the studio of

Gregorio Pagani Gregorio Pagani (14 July 1559 – 1605) was an Italian painter of the late 16th century, active mainly in Florence. He was the son of the painter Francesco Pagani, then became a pupil of Santi di Tito, then entered the studio of Ludovico Cigoli. ...

, who was one of the leaders of the late Florentine school, which sought to unite the rich coloring of the Venetians with the Florentine attention to drawing.Whitaker and Clayton 2007, p. 270 Allori also appears to have worked under

Cigoli Lodovico Cardi (21 September 1559 – 8 June 1613), also known as Cigoli, was an Italian painter and architect of the late Mannerist and early Baroque period, trained and active in his early career in Florence, and spending the last nine years ...

. When still young he became a court portraitist for the Medicis, though many of his commissions were replicas of portraits by his predecessor

Bronzino Agnolo di Cosimo (; 17 November 150323 November 1572), usually known as Bronzino ( it, Il Bronzino ) or Agnolo Bronzino, was an Italian Mannerist painter from Florence. His sobriquet, ''Bronzino'', may refer to his relatively dark skin or reddis ...

, or had participation by others. His pictures are distinguished by their close adherence to nature and the delicacy and technical perfection of their execution. His technical skill is shown by the fact that several copies he made of

Correggio Antonio Allegri da Correggio (August 1489 – 5 March 1534), usually known as just Correggio (, also , , ), was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the High Italian Renaissance, who was responsible for some of the most vigorous and sens ...

's works were thought to be duplicates by Correggio himself. His extreme fastidiousness limited the number of his works. Several examples are to be seen at Florence and elsewhere. His most famous work, in his own day and now, is ''Judith with the Head of Holofernes''. It exists in at least two versions by Allori, of which the

prime version In the art world, if an artwork exists in several versions, the one known or believed to be the earliest is called the prime version. Many artworks produced in media such as painting or carved sculpture which create unique objects are in fact r ...

is perhaps that in the British

Royal Collection The Royal Collection of the British royal family is the largest private art collection in the world. Spread among 13 occupied and historic royal residences in the United Kingdom, the collection is owned by King Charles III and overseen by the ...

, dated 1613, with various

pentimenti A pentimento (plural pentimenti), in painting, is "the presence or emergence of earlier images, forms, or strokes that have been changed and painted over". The word is , from the verb , meaning 'to repent'. Significance Pentimenti may show that ...

. A version of 1620 in the

Palazzo Pitti The Palazzo Pitti (), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present ...

in Florence is the best known and there are several copies by studio and other hands. According to the near-contemporary biography by Filippo Baldinucci, the model for the Judith was his former mistress, the beautiful "La Mazzafirra" (who is also represented in his Magdalene), the head of

Holofernes In the deuterocanonical Book of Judith, Holofernes ( grc, Ὀλοφέρνης; he, הולופרנס) was an invading Assyrian general known for having been beheaded by Judith, a Hebrew widow who entered his camp and beheaded him while he was ...

is a self-portrait, and the maid is the mother of "La Mazzafirra."

Gallery

File:Francesco and Caterina Medici by Cristofano Allori.jpg, Francesco and Caterina Medici, c. 1598 File:Cristofano Allori-selfportrait.jpg, Self-portrait, 1606 File:Cristofano allori, annunciazione dall'annunziata di firenze, entro altare con stemmi panciatichi, 02.jpg, ''Annunciation'',

Pistoia Cathedral Pistoia Cathedral, or Cathedral of Saint Zeno ( it, Duomo di Pistoia or ''Cattedrale di San Zeno'') is the main religious building of Pistoia, Tuscany, central Italy, located in the ''Piazza del Duomo'' in the centre of the city. It is the seat o ...

File:Cristofano allori, compianto sul cristo morto, 1590-1610 ca. 02.jpg, ''Pieta'', around 1600 File:Cristofano allori, immacolata, santi e annunciazione, 04.JPG, Virgin and saints File:Cristofano Allori, Saint Catherine of Siena.jpg, Saint Catherine of Siena. Musée départemental de l'Oise. File:Judith with the Head of Holofernes by Cristofano Allori.jpg, ''Judith with the Head of Holofernes'' (

version, 1613)

Notes

Sources

* * Bond, Anthony; Woodall, Joanna (2005).
Self Portrait: Renaissance to Contemporary
'. London: National Portrait Gallery. p. 96. * Schupbach, Willam
"Letters: Cristofano Allori's 'Judith'"
''The Burlington Magazine'', March, 1979, vol. 121, no. 912, p. 178. * Shearman, John
"Cristofano Allori's 'Judith'"
''The Burlington Magazine'', January, 1979, vol. 121, vo. 910, pp. 2-10. * Whitaker, Lucy, and Clayton, Martin. ''The Art of Italy in the Royal Collection; Renaissance and Baroque'', Royal Collection Publications, 2007,

External links

''Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi''
a fully digitized exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries, which contains material on Cristofano Allori (see index) {{DEFAULTSORT:Allori, Cristofano 1577 births 1621 deaths 16th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 17th-century Italian painters Painters from Florence Italian Mannerist painters Italian portrait painters

Gallery

See also

Notes

Sources

External links