Saint Paul and Saint Peter

Italian mannerist artists such as Rosso Fiorentino (1494-1540) who worked on the painting and stucco decoration of the French royal palace of Fontainebleau established a courtly style of attenuated elegance and refinement in the period 1530-60. The achievements of this so-called first school of Fontainebleau were documented and disseminated by prints, sometimes by the masters themselves. This rich engraving is based on a now-lost drawing by Fiorentino of about 1530/32, perhaps for a sculptural relief for the Abbey of Cluny, the patron saints of which were Peter and Paul. This print is of particular interest as it was created, not at the time in Fontainebleau., but a generation later by a Parisian engraver, and suggests the lasting influence of the decorative projects broadcast through prints.