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| Federico Barocci and workshop Holy Family with the Family of St John the Baptist 1561-63 vault fresco Sala della Sacra Conversazione, Casino Pio IV, Giardini Vaticani, Rome |
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| Federico Barocci and workshop Holy Family with the Family of St John the Baptist (detail) 1561-63 vault fresco Sala della Sacra Conversazione, Casino Pio IV, Giardini Vaticani, Rome |
"As regards the coloring . . . he distributed the hues in proportions and sought to find the right proportions between one color and the next so that all the colors together would have a sense of harmony and balance among them . . . And he said that just as melody of voices delights the ear, so likewise the consonance of colors accompanied by the harmony of outlines brings pleasure to the eye. He therefore called painting music, and questioned one time by Duke Guidobaldo as to what he was doing, he replied "I am harmonizing this music," pointing out the picture he was painting."
– Giovanni Pietro Bellori, Le Vite de' Pittori, Scultori, ed Architetti (Rome, 1672), quoted in Federico Barocci: Allure and Devotion in Late Renaissance Painting by Stuart Lingo (Yale, 2008)
"In his native Urbino, Federico Barocci had early been a pupil of Battista Franco (while Franco, fresh from Rome, was in his most Romanizing phase) and then of [Girolamo] Genga. Working as a youth in near-by Pesaro he had an initial significant experience of Titian in the ducal collection there. In the middle fifties he went for a period of study to Rome, where he observed Raphael particularly and became a friend of Taddeo Zuccaro. Not immediately but somewhat later, on a second Roman visit to work on the decoration of the Casino of Pius IV (1560-63), Barocci demonstrated the sympathy he felt with Taddeo's style and the extent to which it shaped his idea of a Maniera. Barocci's second stay in Rome was interrupted by an alleged poisoning, engineered or performed by an unnamed rival. Whatever occurred had drastic consequences for Barocci's health. He returned to Urbino and for four years painted almost not at all; throughout his life – a long one despite the misadventure – he seems to have been often invalid and subject to depression. After his return he seems hardly to have travelled."
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| Federico Barocci and workshop Baptism of Christ 1561-63 vault fresco Sala della Sacra Conversazione, Casino Pio IV, Giardini Vaticani, Rome |
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| Federico Barocci and workshop Christ and the Woman taken in Adultery 1561-63 vault fresco Sala della Sacra Conversazione, Casino Pio IV, Giardini Vaticani, Rome |
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| Federico Barocci and workshop Christ walking on Water 1561-63 vault fresco Sala della Sacra Conversazione, Casino Pio IV, Giardini Vaticani, Rome |
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| Federico Barocci and workshop Ascription to Pope Pius IV Medici 1561-63 vault fresco Sala della Sacra Conversazione, Casino Pio IV, Giardini Vaticani, Rome |
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| Federico Barocci and workshop Ascription to Pope Pius IV Medici (detail) 1561-63 vault fresco Sala della Sacra Conversazione, Casino Pio IV, Giardini Vaticani, Rome |
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| Federico Barocci and workshop Ascription to Pope Pius IV Medici 1561-63 vault fresco Sala della Sacra Conversazione, Casino Pio IV, Giardini Vaticani, Rome |
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| Federico Barocci and workshop Medici Escutcheon 1561-63 vault fresco Sala della Sacra Conversazione, Casino Pio IV, Giardini Vaticani, Rome |
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| Federico Barocci and workshop Medici Escutcheon 1561-63 vault fresco Sala dell'Annunciazione, Casino Pio IV, Giardini Vaticani, Rome |
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| Federico Barocci and workshop Tondo with Landscape 1561-63 vault fresco Sala dell'Annunciazione, Casino Pio IV, Giardini Vaticani, Rome |
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| Federico Barocci and workshop Joseph and Potiphar's Wife 1561-63 vault fresco Sala dell'Annunciazione, Casino Pio IV, Giardini Vaticani, Rome |
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| Federico Barocci and workshop Joseph and Potiphar's Wife 1561-63 vault fresco Sala dell'Annunciazione, Casino Pio IV, Giardini Vaticani, Rome |
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| Federico Barocci and workshop Joseph and his Brothers 1561-63 vault fresco Sala dell'Annunciazione, Casino Pio IV, Giardini Vaticani, Rome |
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| Federico Barocci and workshop Allegory of the Mount of Knowledge 1561-63 vault fresco Sala dell'Annunciazione, Casino Pio IV, Giardini Vaticani, Rome |
"In his native Urbino, Federico Barocci had early been a pupil of Battista Franco (while Franco, fresh from Rome, was in his most Romanizing phase) and then of [Girolamo] Genga. Working as a youth in near-by Pesaro he had an initial significant experience of Titian in the ducal collection there. In the middle fifties he went for a period of study to Rome, where he observed Raphael particularly and became a friend of Taddeo Zuccaro. Not immediately but somewhat later, on a second Roman visit to work on the decoration of the Casino of Pius IV (1560-63), Barocci demonstrated the sympathy he felt with Taddeo's style and the extent to which it shaped his idea of a Maniera. Barocci's second stay in Rome was interrupted by an alleged poisoning, engineered or performed by an unnamed rival. Whatever occurred had drastic consequences for Barocci's health. He returned to Urbino and for four years painted almost not at all; throughout his life – a long one despite the misadventure – he seems to have been often invalid and subject to depression. After his return he seems hardly to have travelled."
– S.J. Freedberg, Painting in Italy 1500-1600 in the Pelican History of Art series (1970)