Pier Francesco Mazzucchelli (commonly known as il Morazzone; 1573–1626) was an Italian painter and draughtsman who was active in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

. He is mainly known for his altarpieces, but his outstanding achievements are large decorative frescoes for the

Sacro Monte di Varese The Sacro Monte di Varese (literally 'Sacred Mount of Varese') is one of the nine sacri monti in the Italy, Italian regions of Lombardy and Piedmont which were inscribed on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 2003. It has an altitude of 80 ...

and the Sacro Monte di Varallo.

Life

He was born in Morazzone, near

Varese Varese ( , ; or ; ; ; archaic ) is a city and ''comune'' in north-western Lombardy, northern Italy, north-west of Milan. The population of Varese in 2018 was 80,559. It is the capital of the Province of Varese. The hinterland or exurban part ...

Lombardy The Lombardy Region (; ) is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in northern Italy and has a population of about 10 million people, constituting more than one-sixth of Italy's population. Lombardy is ...

, the son of a mason, who soon after his birth moved to

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. There he was influenced by Ventura Salimbeni and Cavalier D'Arpino and began to work in a

Mannerist Mannerism 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, when the Baroque style largely replaced it ...

style. In Rome, he painted some canvases and also his first frescoes (''Adoration by the Magi'' and a ''Visitation'') in San Silvestro in Capite (1596). His style also shows exposure to another pupil of D'Arpino,

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (also Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi da Caravaggio; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), known mononymously as Caravaggio, was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the fina ...

. His depictions of martyrdom and ecstasy are imbued with the morbid religiosity characteristic of Lombardy in his age. He relocated to Milan in 1597. In Lombardy, he painted frescoes for the Cappella del Rosario in ''San Vittore'' in

(1599), and worked in some of the

Sacri Monti The (plural of , Italian for "Sacred Mountain") of Piedmont and Lombardy are a series of nine calvaries or groups of chapels and other architectural features created in northern Italy during the late sixteenth century and the seventeenth century ...

of the Alps. This activity began with the ''Ascent to Calvary'' (1602–1606) chapel in the Sacro Monte of Varallo where he was influenced by Gaudenzio Ferrari and developed a more dramatic style. In 1608-1609 he completed the ''Flagellation'' chapel in the Sacro Monte of

then returned to Varallo for the ''Ecce Homo'' chapel (1610–13). The last of this series is the ''Porziuncola'' chapel (1616–20) in the Sacro Monte di Orta. His other frescoes include the ''Cappella della Buona Morte'' in San Gaudenzio in

Novara Novara (; Novarese Lombard, Novarese: ) is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont (Italy), Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With 101,916 inhabitants (on 1 January 2021), it is the second most populous ...

, the altarpiece with the ''Virgin of the Rosary'' in the

Certosa di Pavia The Certosa di Pavia is a monastery complex in Lombardy, Northern Italy, situated near a small village of the same name in the Province of Pavia, north of Pavia. Built from 1396 to 1495, it was once located at the end of the Visconti Park a l ...

and the depiction of some of the ''Prophets'' frescoed for the nave of the

Piacenza Cathedral Piacenza Cathedral (), fully the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta e Santa Giustina, is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Piacenza, Italy. The current structure was built between 1122 and 1233 and is one of the most valuable examples of a Romanesque ar ...

, completed after his death by the Bolognese painter

Guercino Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (February 8, 1591 – December 22, 1666),Miller, 1964 better known as (il) Guercino (), was an Italian Baroque painter and draftsman from Cento in the Emilia region, who was active in Rome and Bologna. The vigorous n ...

. He also painted altarpieces for many churches in Northern Italy and canvases for private collectors. He collaborated with Giovanni Battista Crespi (Il Cerano) and Giulio Cesare Procaccini in the painting of the Quadroni of San Carlo Borromeo for the Duomo of Milan. Among the pupils and followers of ''il Morazzone'' were Francesco Cairo, Stefano & Gioseffo Danedi, Isidoro Bianchi, Giovanni Paolo & Giovanni Battista Recchi, Paolo Caccianiga, Tommaso Formenti, Giambatista Pozzi, and Cristoforo Martinolli della Rocca.Le glorie dell'arte lombarda
by Luigi Malvezzi, 1882, page 248.

References

Sources

* * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mazzucchelli (Morazzone), Francesco 1573 births People from the Province of Varese 16th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 17th-century Italian painters Painters from Milan Italian Baroque painters 1626 deaths Italian Mannerist painters Catholic painters