Cavaliere d'Arpino (Giuseppe Cesari)

Italian, 1568–1640

BiographyGiuseppe Cesari was likely born in the town of Arpino (located between Rome and Naples) in 1568. His father was a painter of votive images. Cesari moved to Rome in about 1581-82 and was apprenticed to Niccolo Circignani (Niccolo Pomarancio, ca. 1517/24-1596), a painter working in the maniera style. A precocious talent, Cesari became a member of the Academie di San Luca in 1585 and received his first independent commission in 1588, for a fresco cycle in San Lorenzo, Damaso (now lost). In this and subsequent commissions the artist went on to develop a more classical style characterized by symmetrical commissions, narrative clarity, and larger, more imposing figures. From 1592, Cesari served as the principal painter to Pope Clement VIII in Rome, receiving prestigious commissions from other members of the papal family as well. He was given the title of “Cavaliere di Christo” in 1601 for his decorations of the Pope's episcopal church, San Giovanni in Laterano. In 1607, Cardinal Scipione Borghese (the nephew of Clement VIII's successor, Paul V) had Cesari arrested and confiscated his collection of more than one hundred pictures (now in Rome, Galleria Borghese). Cesari's late works, after about 1610, are rather rigid and archaizing, and frequently revert to the stylized conventions of the maniera.

In addtion to his many large fresco cycles and altarpieces, Cesari specialized in painting smaller works for private patrons, both Roman and foreign. His works combined a new classical ideal with the graceful elegance of the maniera. Cesari's principal studio assistant was his brother Bernardino (1571-1622). His only direct followers were his sons Muzio (1619-1676) and Bernardino (d. 1703), although numerous artists, including Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1573-1610) and Andrea Sacchi (1599-1661), studied with him and admired his work.