Francesco Cairo

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Francisco Cairo (1607 - 1665) was an Italian painter active in Baroque Lombardy and Piedmont.

He was born and died in Milan. It is not known where he obtained his early training though he is strongly influenced by the circle of il Morazzone, in works such as the Saint Teresa altarpiece in the Certosa di Pavia.

In 1633, Cairo moved to Turin to work as a court painter to Vittorio Amedeo I of the House of Savoy. Between 1637-1638, Cairo travelled to Rome, where he encounters the works of Pietro da Cortona, Guido Reni and of the Caravaggisti. He returns to Lombardy to complete altarpieces for the Certosa of Pavia and a church at Casalpusterlengo. Between 1646-1649, he returns to Turin, and paints an altarpiece for Savigliano and the church of San Salvario.

Many of his works are eccentric depictions of religious ecstasies; the saints appear liquefied and contorted by piety. He often caps them with exuberant, oriental turbans. He is sometimes compared with his Milanese contemporary, Carlo Francesco Nuvolone, also called il Panfilo.

[edit] References

• Wittkower, Rudolf (1993). Pelican History of Art: Art and Architecture Italy, 1600-1750, 1980, Penguin Books Ltd, 339.