1530-1540<\/p>\n
Painting.<\/p>\n
Toward the end of his \u201cLife\u201d of Rosso, Vasari, 1568, II, 211<\/p>\n
(Vasari-Milanesi, V, 171), states: \u201cLavor\u00f2 di sua mano il Rosso; altre le cose dette, un S. Michele, che \u00e9 cosa rara.\u201d\u00a0 Although Vasari gave this information after his description of Rosso\u2019s activities in the ch\u00e2teau at Fontainebleau, the St. Michael<\/i> is grouped with several other works, including the Louvre Piet\u00e0<\/i>, without reference, it seems, to any chronological scheme.<\/p>\n
Mentioned by Kusenberg, 1931, 102, 202, n. 237, who points out the mistaken opinion of Dargenville (Dezallier d\u2019Argenville, I, 1745, 99) that the St. Michael<\/i> was painted for \u00c9couen at the same time as the Louvre Piet\u00e0<\/i>.\u00a0 Cox-Rearick, 1972, 35.\u00a0 B\u00e9guin, Revue du Louvre<\/i>, 1969, 144, 155, suggested that the St. Michael<\/i> might have been related to the cartoon that Vasari records Rosso made for a painting for the \u201cCongregazione del capitolo, dove era canonico\u201d (identified by B\u00e9guin as \u201cla congr\u00e9gation du Chapitre de la Sainte-Chapelle\u201d).\u00a0 But it is implied by Vasari that this cartoon was never executed as a painting, while the St. Michael<\/i> is presented as a picture, that is, it is not specifically mentioned as a cartoon (see L.57<\/a>, where it is suggested that its subject was Augustus and the Tiburtine Sibyl<\/i>).\u00a0 B\u00e9guin, Louvre<\/i>, 1982, 71, n. 98, believed that the St. Michael<\/i> is known from the copy of Rosso\u2019s Francis I Adoring the Enthroned Virgin and Child<\/i> (Fig.D.69<\/a>), also suggested in B\u00e9guin, 1989, 829.\u00a0 This is possible but it has to be asked whether a painting reported to Vasari as a St. Michael<\/i> would have been an image with nine figures where the saint occupies a secondary position.<\/p>\n Vasari gives no indication of the size of the painting nor of where it was.\u00a0 The Order of St. Michael, founded by Louis XI in 1469, was the most prestigious order in France with thirty-six members and the king as its \u201cgrand ma\u00eetre.\u201d\u00a0 Its seat was at Mont Saint Michel and it does not appear to have met elsewhere until 1555 when its seat was moved to the Sainte Chapelle of Vincennes. Rosso\u2019s painting could have been painted for Mont Saint Michel, but it could not apparently have been painted for the order itself anywhere else.\u00a0 There was an old Chapel of St. Michael \u201cdu Palais\u201d near to the Sainte Chapelle in Paris that served as a pilgrimage stop and Rosso\u2019s painting could have been done for this location.1<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 Or it could have been made for another church in Paris, perhaps even Notre Dame.2<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n It is very possible that the lost St. Michael<\/i> was made for Francis I, who was head of the Order of St. Michael of Mont Saint Michel. In 1532 he made a pilgrimage to Mont Saint Michel.3<\/sup><\/a> Perhaps Rosso\u2019s painting commemorated this trip.\u00a0 As B\u00e9guin, 1989, 829, n. 7, pointed out, it can be assumed that it was not intended for Fontainebleau, where it is never mentioned, but the possible suggestion that it is a lost work (L.56<\/a>) intended for Notre Dame, Paris, is not supported by any reference connecting it to this cathedral.<\/p>\n B\u00e9guin, Revue du Louvre<\/i>, 1969, 145, Fig. 1, 155, and as reported by Bacou in EdF<\/i>, 1972, 146, Fig. 159, 148, no. 159, thought that Rosso\u2019s lost painting might have influenced Primaticcio\u2019s drawing of The Virgin, Queen of the Angels<\/i>, in the Louvre, with its central group of St. Michael combating the devil (Fig.Primaticcio, Paris, R.F.31874<\/a>).\u00a0 The foreshortened devil recalls some of the figures in Rosso\u2019s Combat of Centaurs and Lapiths<\/i> (Fig.P.22, I S a<\/a>) and in his relief to the right of the Death of Adonis<\/i> in the Gallery of Francis I (Fig.P.22, III S g<\/a>). The spread-out pose of the saint resembles somewhat that of Adonis in the latter fresco.\u00a0 But that these Rossoesque elements come directly from Rosso\u2019s lost painting cannot be determined.<\/p>\n