1530-1540

Château, Fontainebleau.

Vasari, 1550, 803-804, in the “Life” of Rosso: The king “…lo constitui sopra gli ornamenti di tal fabbriche [at Fontainebleau] …  E cosi continuando i servigi di tanto Re, fece stanze di stucchi lavorate in quel luogo, con storie assai e ordini di camini, e porte fantatische.”

Vasari, 1568, II, 210-211 (Vasari-Milanesi, V, 167, 169-170; Kusenberg, 1931, 104; Barocchi, 1951, 252), in the “Life” of Rosso: The king “lo fece capo generale sopra tutte le fabriche, pitture, ed altri ornamenti di quel luogo [Fontainebleau],…  Fece poi in molte camere, stufe, e altri stanze, infinite opere pur di stucchi e di pitture, delle quali si veggiono alcune ritratte, e mandate fuora in stampe, che sono molto belle e gratiose;…  Ma una gran parte delle stanze che il Rosso fece al detto luogo di Fontanableo, sono state disfatte dopo la sua morte dal detto Francesco Primaticcio che in quel luogo ha fatta nuova, e maggior fabrica.”

In the “Life” of Rosso, Vasari mentions specifically only two decorative works at Fontainebleau, the Gallery of Francis I (P.22), and the room that can be identified as the Salle Haute (L.43) in the Pavillon des Poêles.  Therefore what is alluded to in the passages quoted above must be works in other rooms.  One could be the Galerie Basse that Vasari apparently remarks twice upon in the “Life” of Primaticcio (L.44).  Another could be the Pavilion of Pomona (L.39), which does not appear in any sixteenth century source. Vasari’s reference to “stufe” could possibly indicate the Grande Salle (L.45) in the Pavillon des Poêles, a room that was destroyed in the 1550s, but not, so far as is known, because of the intervention of Primaticcio.  The only work by Rosso that can be conjectured as having been replaced by Primaticcio with a larger room is the Small Gallery (L.41), which was on the site of the Salle du Bal.  If other rooms at Fontainebleau were decorated by Rosso they have not yet been identified.