BEZZI, Giovanni Francesco
(active c. 1530-1571 in Bologna)

The Holy Family with St John the Baptist

1550s
Oil on wood, 50 x 38 cm
Museum of Art, Indianapolis

This picture displays several distinctive aspects of Mannerist vocabulary: formal complexity, awkward composition, eclectic style, and vibrant colouring. Unlike his master's fluid, near academic reading of Michelangelo's style, Giovan Francesco Bezzi (Nosadella) invested his figures with an exaggerated, almost grotesque monumentality and placed them within a relationship of congested intimacy.




© Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Krén and Daniel Marx.