Domenico Beccafumi (Italian, 1486–1551)

b. 1486 — d. 1551

Domenico di Giacomo Pace (also known as Mecarino, 1484/86-1551) was a Sienese Mannerist painter, sculptor, draughtsman, printmaker, and illuminator. At an early age, he took the name Beccafumi from his protector Lorenzo. Beccafumi was perhaps the most original artistic personality of the sixteenth-century Siena. There, he spent the most part of his career, with brief sojourns in Rome (1510-12), Genoa (ca. 1533), and Pisa (1536-38). In Siena, he obtained the most prestigious public commissions, such as the fresco decoration in Palazzo Pubblico, and the design of inlaid marble pavements and the creation of bronze sculptures in the Siena Cathedral. Beccafumi's drawings and prints are both stylistically characterized by vibrant compositions and dramatic effects of light.