Prospero FONTANA Bolognese 1512-1597 Holy Family with St Jerome, a female martyr and the infant St John c.1553-55 oil on wood panel 102.2 x 82.8 cm Felton Bequest 1961 839-5		As with many sixteenth-century artists, Prospero Fontana travelled widely, and he worked in Florence, Genoa, Rome, Fontainbleau in France and his native Bologna, where he settled and became an influential teacher. He studied closely the work of important masters including Michelangelo, Raphael and Parmigiannino, and he worked with Vasari. Fontana is regarded as a mannerist painter and the chief characteristics of this style are manifested in this Holy Family, particularly the way he builds a high degree of tension by crowding the composition with very active figures, almost to the point of claustrophobia. The strong musculature of St Jerome and the seemingly precarious position of the Christ child also add to the tension. Fontana deliberately elongated limbs and manipulated the bodies into artificial positions to create desirable rhythms of line and colour. He used strong reds, greens, flesh pink, and rose colours to fill and balance this dynamic composition, typical traits of Florentine and Bolognese mannerism.
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