Oil Paint
Oil paint is a slow-drying art medium made with pigment and a drying-oil binder that allows extended working time, smooth blending, and layered application.
Painter
Federico Barocci
Federico Barocci was an Italian painter whose graceful, emotionally warm religious scenes evolved from Mannerist beginnings toward the naturalism and color of the Baroque.
Federico Barocci quick facts
The National Gallery describes Barocci as emerging from sixteenth-century Mannerism before developing a gentle devotional painting style that helped inspire Baroque artists. Many studies survive in pastel and colored chalk, but these are drawings, not proof that his finished canvases were painted in pastel.
| Born | About 1533 · Urbino, Duchy of Urbino (now Italy) |
|---|---|
| Died | 1612 · Urbino, Duchy of Urbino (now Italy) |
| Nationality | Italian (from Urbino) |
| Movements | Late Mannerist beginnings; influential transition toward Baroque painting |
| Paint types | Oil Paint |
| Painting surfaces | Canvas |
| Painting methods | Softly blended oil colors, carefully orchestrated emotional gestures, extensive colored pastel and chalk figure drawings, compositional cartoons, and oil sketches |
| Common subjects | Madonna and Child, Holy Family scenes, Saints, warm religious narratives, intimate portraits, and devotional altarpieces |
| Notable works | The Madonna of the Cat · Saint Francis · Quintilia Fischieri · The Visitation |
Sources: National Gallery: Barocci's Mannerist beginnings and pastel studies, National Gallery: The Madonna of the Cat, oil on canvas, The Met: Saint Francis, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art: Quintilia Fischieri, oil on canvas, National Gallery: Barocci, Brilliance and Grace exhibition context.
Paint types used
The National Gallery records The Madonna of the Cat as oil on canvas, as does the Met for Saint Francis. Barocci's many pastel preparatory studies are a drawing practice, not an oil-paint alternative to add to this page's historical paint tiles.
Surface types used
The National Gallery's The Madonna of the Cat, the Met's Saint Francis, and the National Gallery of Art's portrait of Quintilia Fischieri are documented oil-on-canvas paintings. Paper used in preparatory pastel drawings is not counted as a painted surface here.
Canvas
Canvas is a woven fabric support, commonly cotton or linen, used for painting and sold either raw or prepared with a compatible ground layer.
Painters similar to Federico Barocci
Veronese's rich Venetian color and Tintoretto's restless figure arrangements informed the late Renaissance visual environment from which Barocci developed his distinctive, more tender style.
Paolo Veronese
Paolo Veronese was a Venetian Renaissance painter whose luminous color, grand architectural settings, and spectacular banquet scenes reflect selective Mannerist influences.
Jacopo Tintoretto
Jacopo Tintoretto was a Venetian painter associated with Mannerism whose dynamic figures, theatrical lighting, and energetic oil brushwork reshaped religious narratives.