CECCO DEL CARAVAGGIO - b. ~1590 ?, d. ~1630 Roma - WGA

CECCO DEL CARAVAGGIO

(b. ~1590 ?, d. ~1630 Roma)

Mancini, in his ‘Considerazioni sulla Pittura’ of c. 1620, mentions a ‘Francesco detto del Caravaggio’ as an admirer and imitator of Caravaggio. In a document of 1619 a ‘Cecco’ - an abbreviation of Francesco - is recorded among French artists working with Tassi at Bagnaia in 1613-15. he is therefore believed to be French (or at least Northern), which is supported by his hard, coarsely realistic style, with exaggerated facial expressions and elaborate still-life attributes. His works are datable c. 1610.

More recently, Cecco has been identified as the Lombard Francesco Buoneri, who may originally have come from Bergamo, whose crisply painted Resurrection of Christ (Art Institute of Chicago) was commissioned in 1619-20 though later rejected by Piero Guicciardini, the ambassador to the Medici court in Rome, for his family chapel in Santa Felicità in Florence.

Christ Falls on the Road to Calvary

This painting depicts figures with dynamic tension and turned muscles in a complex and intertwined scene, all of which inscribed in the foreground. The attribution of the painting is debated, the Spanish Pedro Nuñez del Valle is also suggested as possible author.

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Guardian Angel with Sts Ursula and Thomas

The immediate influence of Caravaggio can be detected in the paintings by Cecco del Caravaggio, one of the talented followers of Caravaggio.

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Martyrdom of St Sebastian

This painting was previously attributed to Bartolomeo Manfredi or Paolo Finoglia, although it is a rather typical work by Cecco with numerous elements that can be found in his other works. For example, we can cite the figure of the soldier, readily recognizable as one of the painter’s creatures.

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The Flute Player

In a room containing shelves and a table, a young man is about to start playing the flute. Placed on the shelves are bowls, plates and jugs as well as bread and cheese. A small cheese (or head of garlic) hangs precariously from a string tied around a nail on the front of the shelf. On a table, diagonally receding to both left and right, is a glass vase full of water. Other containers on the table are surrounded by single pieces of fruit, a teething ring and a violin and bow.

The Flute Player was at one stage attributed to Louis Finson, but is now almost universally accepted as the work of Cecco del Caravaggio. However, doubts are still being voiced about a possible collaboration with a specialist in still-life painting. The subject of an instrumentalist derives from Caravaggio’s Lute Player (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), and in this case the artist must have been a friend, student or model of Caravaggio’s. The mysterious figure of ‘Francesco, called Cecco del Caravaggio’ mentioned by Giulio Mancini, has recently acquired a slightly more precise identity. The examination of known works by this artist led to the hypothesis that he was from France, Flanders or Spain.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 15 minutes):

Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonata in A Major for flute and cembalo obligato, BWV 1032

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Woman with a Dove

Earlier the painting was attributed to Artemisia Gentileschi and it was thought to be her self-portrait. There is a companion-piece, presently in the Royal Palace in Madrid, representing a young man with a hare. Perhaps the paintings were executed on the occasion of a marriage: the dove and the hare are the symbols of love.

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