Rosso, Giovanni Battista di Jacopo (1494–1540)

Florentine painter. He was active in Florence, Rome, Venice and, from 1530, France, where he was in charge of the decoration of Fontainebleau palace. A nomadic lifestyle was not unusual for an artist, but in Rosso's case it seems to have been necessitated by his sharp and injudicious tongue. Giorgio Vasari claims that, in the end, an overhasty allegation against one of his assistants caused recriminations and Rosso's suicide.

Born in Florence, Rosso studied under Andrea del Sarto and worked in Florence from 1513–23. In 1524 he went to Rome hoping to work in the Vatican. Instead, through Antonio da Sangallo (whom he soon antagonized), he decorated the Cesi Chapel in Sta Maria della Pace. He left Rome when it was sacked in 1527, travelled to Venice and, from there, was invited by Francis I to his court. From the time of his arrival in France, his work was taken up with decorating Fontainebleau, where he was joined in 1532 by Francesco Primaticcio. His Moses Defending the Daughters of Jethro (1523, Uffizi, Florence) and his Dead Christ (1526, Museum of Fine Art, Boston) demonstrate how strongly he was influenced by Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling.