ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the fertile tensions between vaghezza and devozione in Federico Barocci's work over the arc of his long career. It highlights some of Barocci's other artistic investments—particularly a resilient if discrete commitment to the body and even the nude—that are easy to overlook in the midst of his often evident labor to displace vaghezza from the body and incorporate salient aspects of traditional Christian images into his ambitious modern paintings. By shifting lens, and considering what might be perceived as an internal counter-narrative within Barocci's artistic strategies, we may gain further purchase on an aporia that still inhibits our ability to "see" his works and situate them in the history of art. While the painting presents the sacred narrative in a clear and dramatic fashion and highlights the figure of the saint through a centralized, frontal presentation, Barocci stages here what could be termed a decorous but decisive reinvestment in critical predilections of the maniera moderna.
