The Nativity by Federico Barocci was created in 1597. The painting is in Museo del Prado, Madrid. The size of the work is 134 x 105 cm and is made of oil on canvas.
After a documented stay in Rome and a highly probable visit to Parma to study Correggio, Barocci returned to Urbino in 1576. When he painted this work for Francesco Maria II della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, he had a very personal style that merged the Venetian use of color with what has been called mystic naturalism. Read more in Museo del Prado.
About the Artist: Federico Barocci was an Italian Renaissance painter and printmaker. His work was highly esteemed and influential, and foreshadows the Baroque of Rubens. He is generally considered the greatest and the most individual painter of his time in central Italy. He was born at Urbino, Duchy of Urbino, and received his earliest apprenticeship with his father, Ambrogio Barocci. He was then apprenticed with the painter Battista Franco in Urbino.
After passing four years at Rome, he returned to his native city, where his first work of art was a St. Margaret executed for the Confraternity of the Holy Sacrament. He was invited back to Rome by Pope Pius IV to assist in the decoration of the Vatican Belvedere Palace at Rome, where he painted the Virgin Mary and infant, with several Saints and a ceiling in fresco, representing the Annunciation. Read more….
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