1504/1505 -1570 · Mannerism, Fontainebleau School and royal decor

Elongated bodies, choreographed gestures, scholarly mythologies and fusion of painting with stucco make Primaticce the major architect of the Fontainebleau School.

Francesco Primaticcio, called Primaticce in France, was born in Bologna in 1504 or 1505. He formed in Emilia, in contact with Innocenzo da Imola and especially Giulio Romano, whom he joined in Mantua. At the Palais du Te, he learned to design a total decor where frescoes, stuccoes, architecture and mythological subjects completely transformed the space. Around 1532, François I called him to the Château de Fontainebleau. Primaticce first worked there alongside Rosso Fiorentino, then after his death in 1540 took artistic direction of the major royal projects. Galleries, apartments, baths and party rooms are designed as continuous ensembles. Galleries, apartments, baths and party rooms are designed as continuous ensembles. Galleries, apartments, baths and party rooms are designed as continuous ensembles. cross and the nudes seem to evolve in a scholarly choreography. Primaticce traveled several times to Italy to buy antiques and have the most famous statues in Rome molded, spreading to the French court a vocabulary nourished by Raphael, Michelangelo, Parmigianino and Giulio Romano. He also designed tapestries, parties, costumes, sculptures and architectural projects. Many of its decorations have disappeared, but the drawings and engravings retain their invention. The Holy Family with Saint Elizabeth translated this mannerism into a devotional painting: the close bodies, the flexible gestures and the precious color give the group a court elegance. Danaé shows the other side of his art, sensual and mythological, where the body becomes the center of a refined space. Under Henry II then Charles IX, Primaticce remained one of the most powerful artists of the monarchy and in 1559 received the office of superintendent of the king's buildings. Died in Paris in 1570, he made Fontainebleau a European laboratory of mannerism. The "Francesco Primaticcio" selection notably compares The Holy Family with Saint Elizabeth and Danaé. His reading favors color.

Primaticce does not simply decorate a room: it transforms walls, bodies, stuccoes and stories into a continuous world where the court dreams of being heir to Antiquity.