Pier Francesco Mazzucchelli, known as Morazzone (Morazzone, July 29, 1573 – Piacenza, 1626), was an Italian painter and draughtsman of the Age of Counter-Reformation. He was active in Milan. He is mainly known for his altarpieces, but his outstanding achievements are large decorative frescoes for the Sacro Monte di Varese and the Sacro Monte di Varallo.

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.

Formed in Rome within Ventura Salimbeni and then approached Cavalier d’Arpino, Morazzone painted various works in the Eternal City; Lost in Lateran and St. Peter’s Basilica, there are two frescoes in San Silvestro in Capite today.

In Rome he painted some canvases and also his first frescoes (Adoration by the Magi and a Visitation) in San Silvestro in Capite (1596). 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.Back in Lombardy in 1598, Morazzone performed an important cycle of frescoes in the Rosary Chapel in San Vittore in Varese. He was then employed at Sacro Monte di Varallo to decorate three chapels (Go to Calvary, Ecce Homo and Condemnation of Christ) and that of Varese for the chapel of the Flagellation.

In Lombardy, he painted frescoes for the Cappella del Rosario in San Vittore in Varese (1599), and worked in some of the Sacri Monti of the Alps.

Varallo had the opportunity to study closely the art of Gaudenzio Ferrari, whose influence will be a key point in his style. During these years, having performed a cycle of canvases for the parish of Arona, he collaborated with the Milanese Piercamillo Landriani, the Duchin, an artist who had been in contact with the Val di Blenio Academy for the execution of two bricks “Of the series of Facts of the Life of San Carlo Borromeo for the Duomo of Milan (1602-1603) and paint the canvas with Pentecost for the ceiling of the Provvidenza Tribunale of Lombardy (now at Castello Sforzesco in Milan, 1605-1612) .

This activity began with the Ascent to Calvary (1602–1606) 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 (1610–13).

The latter, around 1613, demanded the collaboration of Morazzone to realize his precious office, now kept in the Museum of the Castello Sforzesco in Milan.

Between 1608 and 1613, Morazzone was very active in the city of Como, where he painted the blade for the church of the Holy Trinity (now in the church of the Cardinal Ferrari Center), the frescoes of the vault of the Mansionari sacristy in the Duomo, With “The Fall of the Rebellious Angels” for the church of San Giovanni Pedemonte (now in the civic gallery), the canvases in a chapel of the church of Sant’Agostino and the Gonfalone of the Brotherhood of the Blessed Sacrament and Sant’Abbondio in Duomo Whose commission contract was handled by Giovan Battista Borsieri, Giovan Pietro Odescalchi and Canon by Quintilio Lucini Passalacqua.

During this period Morazzone also gained a certain reputation, thanks to the quotation in a poem by Giovanni Battista Marino. In 1616 he decorated the Chapel of the Porziuncola at the Sacred Mount of Orta and the Chapel of San Carlo Borromeo in the collegiate of Borgomanero, where is also placed a shovel with San Rocco. The following year there is the San Carlo in Gloria of the church of Santa Maria della Noce in Inverigo and the Madonna del Rosario for the Certosa of Pavia. In 1620 he completed the frescoes of the Chapel of Good Death in San Gaudenzio in Novara.

Along with Cerano and Julius Caesar Procaccini signs the famous Quadro delle tre mani, today exposed at the Pinacoteca di Brera.

Last of this serie is the Porziuncola chapel (1616–20) in the Sacro Monte di Orta. His other frescoes include the Cappella della Buona Morte in San Gaudenzio in Novara and the depiction of some of the Prophets frescoed for the nave of the Piacenza Cathedral, completed after his death by the Bolognese painter Guercino.

He also painted altarpieces for many churches in Northern Italy and canvases for private collectors. He collaborated with Giovanni Battista Crespi (Il Cerano) and Giulio Cesare Procaccini in the painting of the Quadroni of San Carlo Borromeo for the Duomo of Milan. Among the pupils and followers of il Morazzone were Francesco Cairo, Stefano & Gioseffo Danedi, Isidoro Bianchi, Giovanni Paolo & Giovanni Battista Recchi, Paolo Caccianiga, Tommaso Formenti, Giambatista Pozzi, and Cristoforo Martinolli della Rocca.

In recent years he has come into contact with the court of Savoia, so he began a cycle of frescoes in Rivoli Castle (then completed by Isidoro Bianchi) and the canvas with the Province of Susa (Turin, Galleria Sabauda), which should have Part of a series painted by Milanese painters (Cerano and Giulio Cesare Procaccini were also involved in the company).

In 1626 he was called to Piacenza, within the stylistic renewal of the interior of the Duomo (to which Camillo Procaccini and Ludovico Carracci also worked) for the frescoes of the dome.

Death prevented him from completing the commission, then executed by Guercino.