Pier Francesco Mazzucchelli

Who was Pier Francesco Mazzucchelli?

Pier Francesco Mazzucchelli was an Italian painter of the early Baroque era in Milan.

He was born in Morazzone, near Varese, Lombardy, the son of a mason, who soon after his birth moved to Rome. There he was influenced by Ventura Salimbeni and Cavalier D'Arpino and began to work in a Mannerist style. In Rome he painted some canvases and also his first frescoes in San Silvestro in Capite. His style also shows exposure to another pupil of D'Arpino, Caravaggio. His depictions of martyrdom and ecstasy are imbued with the morbid religiosity characteristic of Lombardy in his age.

He returned to Milan in 1597. In Lombardy, he painted frescoes for the Cappella del Rosario in San Vittore in Varese, and worked in some of the Sacri Monti of the Alps. This activity began with the Ascent to Calvary chapel in the Sacro Monte of Varallo where he was influenced by Gaudenzio Ferrari and developed a more dramatic style. In 1608-1609 he completed the Flagellation chapel in the Sacro Monte of Varese then returned to Varallo for the Ecce Homo chapel. Last of this serie is the Porziuncola chapel in Sacro Monte of Orta. His other frescoes include the Cappella della Buona Morte in San Gaudenzio in Novara and some Prophets in the Piacenza Cathedral, completed after his death by the Bolognese painter Guercino.