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Cristofano Allori
1577 - 1621
Cristofano Allori was an Italian baroque portrait painter of the late Florentine Mannerist School. He was one of the leading Florentine painters of his period, working in a style that was more naturalistic and Baroque than that of his respectful father.
He was born at Florence and received his first lessons in painting from his father, Alessandro Allori who was one of the last notable exponents of Mannerism, painting in a style that had become outmoded by the time of his death. His son became dissatisfied with the hard anatomical drawing and cold coloring of the latter, and entered the studio of Gregorio Pagani (1558-1605) who was one of the leaders of the late Florentine school, which sought to unite the rich coloring of the Venetians with the Florentine attention to drawing. Allori also appears to have worked under Cigoli.
His pictures are distinguished by their close adherence to nature and the delicacy and technical perfection of their execution. His technical skill is shown by the fact that several copies he made of Correggio's works were thought to be duplicates by Correggio himself. His extreme fastidiousness limited the number of his works. Several specimens are to be seen at Florence and elsewhere.
He is remembered primarily for one work, Judith with the Head of Holofernes (c. 1615, Pitti, Florence, and other versions), in which his femme fatale mistress, the beautiful Mazzafirra, is portrayed as Judith and he has depicted his own features in Holofernes' severed head.
In the 18th and 19th centuries it was one of the most famous paintings in Italy. It exists in two copies in the Pitti Palace in Florence and in the Queen's Gallery in London. The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford possesses portraits by both Alessandro and Cristofano Allori.
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