Thursday, April 18, 2019

Francesco Buoneri, called Cecco del Caravaggio - Rome

Cecco del Caravaggio
Resurrection
ca. 1619-20
oil on canvas
Art Institute of Chicago

Cecco del Caravaggio
Resurrection (detail)
ca. 1619-20
oil on canvas
Art Institute of Chicago

Cecco del Caravaggio
Resurrection (detail)
ca. 1619-20
oil on canvas
Art Institute of Chicago

"To this day Cecco del Caravaggio remains an enigmatic figure, despite Gianni Papi's recent research on the artist.  He was identified as Francesco Buoneri through documents related to the decoration of the Guicciardini chapel in the church of Santa Felicita in Florence.  In fact, the ambassador of Grand Duke Cosimo in Rome, Piero Guicciardini, commissioned from 'Francesco Buonero pittore' a painting of The Resurrection.  He received payments totaling 200 scudi between September 1619 and June 1620.  . . .  Cecco's painting was rejected by the patron and sold in Rome for 160 scudi.  The canvas was likely purchased by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, as evidenced by its presence in the seventeenth-century inventories." 

– from the exhibition catalogue, Caravaggio & His Followers in Rome, curated by David Franklin and Sebastian Schütze (Yale University Press, 2011)


"The Resurrection exaggerates the bold contrast of light and dark and the realistic treatment of sacred figures that Caravaggio had introduced into Roman painting.  Buoneri was apparently one of Caravaggio's closest followers.  He may have been the 'boy Francesco' who assisted the painter during his last years in Rome, a personal connection suggested by his contemporary nickname Cecco (for Francesco) del Caravaggio."

– curator's notes from the Art Institute of Chicago

Cecco del Caravaggio
Christ expelling the Money-changers from the Temple
ca. 1610-20
oil on canvas
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

Cecco del Caravaggio
Road to Calvary
ca. 1610
oil on canvas
Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava

Cecco del Caravaggio
Martyrdom of St Sebastian
ca. 1611-13
oil on canvas
National Museum, Warsaw

Cecco del Caravaggio
Penitent Magdalen
before 1620
oil on canvas
private collection

Cecco del Caravaggio
Penitent Magdalen
before 1620
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Cecco del Caravaggio
Guardian Angel with St Ursula and St Thomas
ca. 1615
oil on canvas
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Cecco del Caravaggio
Woman with a Dove
ca. 1610-20
oil on canvas
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Cecco del Caravaggio
Musician
ca. 1610
oil on canvas
Wellington Collection, Apsley House, London

Cecco del Caravaggio
Flute-player
ca. 1610-20
oil on canvas
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Cecco del Caravaggio
St Lawrence
ca. 1615
oil on canvas
Chiesa Nuova, Rome

Cecco del Caravaggio
Eritrean Sibyl
ca. 1610-20
oil on canvas
private collection

Cecco del Caravaggio
Salome with the Head of John the Baptist
ca. 1610-20
oil on canvas
Collezione Koelliker, Milan