Giovanni Baglione
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Giovanni Baglione (1566–1643), was an Italian early baroque painter and historian of art.
[edit] Biography
A pupil of Francesco Morelli, he worked mainly in Rome, initially with a late-Mannerist style.
He was notorious for his animosity towards Caravaggio, whose style had influenced him much. The latter was forced to leave the city after Baglione's accusations of sodomy. 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).
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 Zuccheri 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 created him a Knight of the Order of Christ for his painting of Saint Peter Raising Tabitha from the Dead (1607) in St. Peter's Basilica.
He published two books, The nine churches of Rome (1639) and The Lives of Painters, Sculptors and Architects (1642). The last title is still seen as an important historical source for painters living in Rome during the life of Baglione.
