Fantasy and Invention: Rosso Fiorentino and Sixteenth-Century Florentine Drawing December 9, 2012

The Morgan will present this exhibition on the occasion of an important loan from the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore: Rosso Fiorentino's 'Holy Family with the Young Saint John the Baptist.' Executed around 1520 and one of only three paintings by the artist in America, the Holy Family is the centerpiece of this rich and focused exhibition of drawings. This exhibition presents a rare opportunity for visitors to see a painting by this complex and mysterious Renaissance artist in the context of the broader current of mannerism of which Rosso was a leading proponent. Complementing Rosso's striking painting will be nearly twenty Florentine High Renaissance and Mannerist Florentine drawings from the Morgan's collection, including major examples by Andrea del Sarto; Rosso's contemporaries Jacopo Pontormo, Giorgio Vasari, and Baccio Bandinelli, all of whom also worked in Andrea del Sarto's studio; and other preeminent draftsmen of the period such as Francesco Salviati, Agnolo Bronzino, and Alessandro Allori. A rare drawing by Rosso, on loan from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, will also be on view.