Baglione, Giovanni

Giovanni Baglione (1566 – 30 December 1643) was an Italian Late Mannerist and Early Baroque painter and art historian. He is best remembered for his acrimonious involvement with the artist Caravaggio and his writings concerning the other Roman artists of his time. Early life A pupil of Francesco Morelli, he worked mainly in Rome, initially with a late-Mannerist style. He was also nicknamed Il Sordo del Barozzo. Writing He published two books, The nine churches of Rome (1639) and The Lives of Painters, Sculptors, Architects and Engravers (active from 1572–1642 (1642). The latter is still seen as an important historical source for artists living in Rome during the lifetime of Baglione. Among those whom he chronicled, and for whom he was notorious in his animosity towards, was Caravaggio. Baglione''s Sacred love versus profane love, a response to Caravaggio''s Love Victorious, shows an angel (Sacred Love) interrupting a ''meeting'' between Cupid (Profane Love) and the Devil (portrayed with the face of Caravaggio). Ironically, Baglione was greatly influenced by the style of Caravaggio during this period of his career. In late August of 1603 Baglione filed a suit for libel against Caravaggio, Orazio Gentileschi, Ottavio Leoni, and Filipo Trisegni in connection with some unflattering poems circulated around Rome over the preceding summer. Caravaggios testimony during the trial as recorded in court documents is one of the few insights into his thoughts about the subject of art and his contemporaries. Caravaggio was found guilty and held in the Tor di Nona prison for two weeks after the trial. Works He was employed in many considerable works in Rome during the pontificates of Clement VIII and Paul V. His main works are frescoes which can be seen in the Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, in the Cappella Borghese. For the church of Santa Maria dell''Orto he painted in the chapel of Our Lady with the Zuccari scenes from the life of the Blessed Virgin. Among other works which he executed for this church is a painting of Saint Sebastian. An excellent example of Baglione''s work is The Last Supper at San Nicola in Carcere. From his brush also there is a Saint Stephen in the Cathedral at Perugia, and in that of Loreto a Saint Catherine. Pope Paul V knighted Baglione a Knight of the Order of Christ for his painting of Saint Peter Raising Tabitha from the Dead (1607) in St. Peter''s Basilica. The Giustizia hall at the Rocca dei Rossi was completely frescoed by Baglione. He died in Rome on the 30th of December in 1643 at the age of 77.