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| attributed to Orazio Borgianni Self-portrait before 1616 oil on canvas Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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| Orazio Borgianni Vision of St Jerome ca. 1600 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
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| Orazio Borgianni St Christopher carrying the infant Christ ca. 1598-1602 oil on canvas Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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| Orazio Borgianni St Christopher carrying the infant Christ ca. 1615 oil on canvas National Galleries of Scotland |
"An Italian painter and etcher, Orazio Borgianni is best known for his paintings reflecting the influence of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610). According to the most recent scholarship he was born on April 16, 1574 in Rome, the son of a carpenter from Florence. He received his artistic training from his stepbrother, Giulio Lasso, a sculptor and architect. Borgianni accompanied Lasso on a trip to Sicily sometime around 1591, a painting by him dated to 1593 remains on that island. He went to Spain in 1598, apparently lured by the prospect of royal patronage, and stayed until 1603, when he signed a petition supporting the creation of a painting academy in Madrid. He enjoyed great artistic success, several paintings by him from this period remain in Spain. Scholars believe Borgianni returned to Rome in 1603. . . . He continued to enjoy the patronage of Spanish aristocrats after returning to Rome, as well as that of the Spanish ambassador to the Vatican. . . . Borgianni was buried in Rome on January 15, 1616, presumably having died a few days earlier."
– from curator's notes at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
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| Orazio Borgianni Head of an Old Woman after 1610 oil on canvas Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Orazio Borgianni Head of the Magdalen before 1616 oil on canvas private collection |
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| Orazio Borgianni Christ among the Doctors ca. 1609 oil on canvas Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Orazio Borgianni Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane ca. 1610 oil on panel Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig |
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| Orazio Borgianni Crucifixion ca. 1600 oil on canvas Museo di Cadice, Spain |
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| Orazio Borgianni Martyrdom of St Lawrence ca. 1610-1612 oil on canvas Museo de la Real Colegiata, Roncisvalle, Navarra, Spain |
"Of all the followers of Caravaggio, Borgianni is perhaps the most problematic figure, but he is certainly the one who possessed the most elemental artistic talent. Too independent to be termed a true disciple of Caravaggio, his style, which strove for enchanting effects of chiaroscuro and for refinement of surface and tactile quality, might best be described as a parallel historic phenomenon to Caravaggio. It is very probable that while in Spain he saw the works of El Greco and was influenced by that artist's demonic personality. He was by nature above all else a virtuoso of draftsmanship who was intrigued by especially difficult problems of perspective and bold foreshortening. Borgianni created a few works in which the painterly lustre and emotional intensity rival, in their own way, the best paintings of Caravaggio. Perhaps his aims were too ambitious, or perhaps his talent was hindered by contradictions within himself, since a visual imagination such as his, so strongly focused upon the sensual and the painterly, is difficult to balance harmoniously with the inherited idea of plastic-linear precision."
– Hermann Voss, from Baroque Painting in Rome (1925), revised and translated by Thomas Pelzel (San Francisco: Alan Wofsy, 1997)
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| Orazio Borgianni Martyrdom of St Erasmus ca. 1610 oil on canvas private collection |
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| Orazio Borgianni David beheading Goliath ca. 1609-1610 oil on canvas Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid |
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| Orazio Borgianni Lamentation over the Body of Christ ca. 1615 oil on canvas Galleria Spada, Rome |
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| Orazio Borgianni Lamentation over the Body of Christ 1615 etching Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |