VANNI, Francesco

Painter, draughtsman and printmaker. He studied first in Siena with his stepfather Arcangelo Salimbeni, and then in Rome (1579-80) with Giovanni de' Vecchi. The stylistic sources of his earliest works, such as the Baptism of Constantine (1586-87, Siena, S Agostino), lie both in the art of Salimbeni, which represented a reaction against the artificiality of MannerismGLOSSARYA movement in Italian art from about 1520 to 1600. Developing out of the Renaissance, Mannerism rejected Renaissance balance and harmony in favor of emotional intensity and ambiguity. In Mannerist painting, this was expressed mainly through severe distortions of perspective and scale; complex and crowded compositions; strong, sometimes harsh or discordant colors; and elongated figures in exaggerated poses. In architecture, there was a playful exaggeration of Renaissance forms (largely in scale and proportion) and the greater use of bizarre decoration. Mannerism gave way to the Baroque. Leading Mannerists include Pontormo, Bronzino, Parmigianino, El Greco and Tintoretto., and in the art of the Counter-ReformationGLOSSARYTerm in ecclesiastical history referring to the reform of the entire Church which was widely believed to be necessary as early as the late Middle Ages. Reform programs, such as those passed by the Councils of Constance (1414-1418) and Basle (1431-1437 and 1448) or the 5th Lateran Council (1512-1517), did not achieve any lasting results. Not until the Protestant Reformation were the Pope and Roman Curia forced to take specific action against abuse of position, declining moral standards, the selling of indulgences and excesses in the worship of saints and relics. With the Laetere Jerusalem (1544) bull. Pope Paul III (1534-1549) was responsible for the convocation of the Council of Trent which, in three separate sessions between 15445 and 1563, started the process of inner reform in the Church. in Rome, particularly that of Federico Zuccaro.

From 1585 the strongest influence on his work is the art of Federico Barocci. This is particularly evident in the sharp and acid colours, rich in clear and iridescent tones, of Christ Appearing to St Catherine (Siena, Santuario Cateriniano) and of the Baptism (1587, ex-S Giovannino e Gennaro, Siena). It is also evident in his handling of facial types in the Immaculate Conception (1588; Montalcino CathedralGLOSSARYThe principal church of a province or diocese, where the throne of the bishop is placed. For reasons lost to time and tradition, a cathedral always faces west - toward the setting sun. The altar is placed at the east end. The main body, or nave, of the cathedral is usually divided into one main and two side aisles. These lead up to the north and south transepts, or arms of the cross, the shape in which a cathedral is usually formed.) and still more marked in the AnnunciationGLOSSARYthe term for the event described in the Gospel according to St. Luke, when the Angel Gabriel brings the Virgin Mary the news that she is to bear her son, Jesus Christ. The Annunciation was among the most widespread pictorial subjects of European art during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. (1589; Siena, S Maria dei Servi), commissioned by the Servi Order in Siena, which is directly based on Barocci's Annunciation (Rome, Pinacoteca Vaticana). Vanni also responded to the art of the Carracci, which he may have assimilated during a probable apprenticeship with Bartolomeo Passerotti in Bologna, or while on a visit to that city. St Francis Receiving the Child from the Virgin (Florence, Uffizi) has long been attributed to Ludovico Carracci but is in fact the bozzettoGLOSSARYStrictly speaking, a small three-dimensional sketch in wax or clay made by a sculptor in preparation for a larger and more finished work. By extension, a rapid sketch in oil, made as a study for a larger picture. for Vanni's St Anthony Receiving the Child from the Virgin (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum).

His son Raffaele Vanni (1587-1673) was also a painter.