Cecco del Caravaggio

Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian

Artist	Cecco del Caravaggio
Year	c. 1610–1620
Type	Oil on canvas
Location	National Museum in Warsaw

Cecco del Caravaggio (active c.1610-mid-1620s), is the name used for a Baroque artist working in Rome in the early decades of the 17th century, an important early follower of Caravaggio. He has been identified as Francesco Boneri (or Buoneri), although this is not universally accepted.

Little is known about Cecco del Caravaggio. In his guide to contemporary artists written for fellow-collectors in about 1620, Considerazioni sulla Pittura, Giulio Mancini mentions a 'Francesco detto Cecco del Caravaggio' as one of the great master's more noteworthy followers. A 'Cecco' is recorded among French artists working with Agostino Tassi at Bagnaia in 1613-15, and hence the artist has been thought to be of French origin, while other scholars have detected a Spanish influence, but in 2001 the scholar Gianni Papi identified this Cecco del Caravaggio as the Lombard artist Francesco Boneri (or Buoneri), and this now seems to be generally although not universally accepted.

None of Cecco's works are signed or dated and hence his oeuvre is difficult to identify, but he is associated with a number of genre pieces, portraits and religious works showing a clear debt to Caravaggio. His more important religious works include his Resurrection now in the Art Institute of Chicago and his Christ Expelling the Money Changers from the Temple.^[1]

An identification has also been made, (notably by the journalist Peter Robb in his 1998 biography of Caravaggio, M-The Man Who Became Caravaggio), between Francesco Boneri/Cecco del Caravaggio and the boy who models for a number of paintings done by Caravaggio in the period 1600/1606, including the famous Amor Vincit and the John the Baptist in the Capitoline Museum in Rome. The identification is based on the statements found in early authors that the model for Amor Vincit was a boy named Cecco who was also Caravaggio's servant and possibly pupil. As attractive as this idea is, it remains unproven.

Gallery

• Cecco del Caravaggio
• 

  Guardian angel

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  Young man with musical instruments

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  Beheading of St. John the Baptist

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  Woman with a Dove

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  Fluteplayer

References

• Peter Robb, M-The Man Who Became Caravaggio, 1998 [ISBN 1-876631-79-1]
• Richard Spear, Caravaggio and his Followers, 1975 [ISBN 0-06-430034-X]

Bibliography

• Papi, Gianni (2001). Cecco del Caravaggio. Soncino: Edizioni dei Soncino. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cecco del Caravaggio.

• Article on Cecco del Caravaggio
• Discussion of Cecco del Caravaggio's Resurrection

Caravaggisti Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio Artists in biographies by Giovanni Baglione Baroque Chiaroscuro Tenebrism Paintings attributed to Caravaggio Dutch Caravaggisti Dirck van Baburen Jan van Bijlert Paulus Bor Andries Both Hendrick Bloemaert Jan Gerritsz van Bronckhorst Hendrick ter Brugghen Wouter Crabeth II Gerard van Honthorst Matthias Stom Flemish Caravaggisti Flemish Baroque painting Adam de Coster Nicolas Régnier Theodoor Rombouts Gerard Seghers French Caravaggisti Trophime Bigot Valentin de Boulogne Georges de La Tour Jean LeClerc Nicolas Tournier Claude Vignon Simon Vouet Italian Caravaggisti Giovanni Baglione Orazio Borgianni Battistello Caracciolo Cecco del Caravaggio Bernardo Cavallino Bartolomeo Cavarozzi Domenico Fetti Artemisia Gentileschi Orazio Gentileschi Giovanni Francesco Guerrieri Ottavio Leoni Bartolomeo Manfredi Mario Minniti Mattia Preti Orazio Riminaldi Carlo Saraceni Bartolomeo Schedoni Giovanni Serodine Carlo Sellitto Leonello Spada Massimo Stanzione Giuseppe Vermiglio Spanish Caravaggisti Bartolomé Esteban Murillo Francisco Ribalta Juan Ribalta Jusepe de Ribera Francisco de Zurbarán Related topics Rembrandt Gerrit Dou Peter Paul Rubens Diego Velázquez