Giovanni Domenico Cerrini Allegory of Painting, with Self-portrait of the Artist ca. 1639 oil on canvas Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna |
Giovanni Domenico Cerrini Allegory of Time destroying Beauty before 1681 oil on canvas Museo del Prado, Madrid |
Giovanni Domenico Cerrini Apollo and the Cumaean Sibyl ca. 1650 oil on canvas Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Perugia |
"Born in Perugia in 1609, Cerrini trained under Domenico Scaramuccia, a local painter, along with Scaramuccia's son Luigi. He is supposed also to have been a student of Guido Reni; in any event he was certainly influenced by Reni as well as by Domenichino. He worked chiefly in Rome, and at times also in Florence and Naples. . . . Cerrini appears to have been one of the last and weakest of the offshoots of the movement radiating from Bologna. His talent, not unlike that of his compatriot, Giovanni Sassoferrato, lay in cleanly composed pictures of moderate scale involving single figures or groups of half-length figures. . . . Unlike Sassoferrato he did not deliberately pursue an archaistic style, yet in the simplified and at the same time emotional manner in which he transformed the Bolognese style, one senses a compatriot of Pietro Perugino. . . . In the field of decorative fresco, Cerrini's chief work is the nave ceiling and cupola of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome, parts of which are quite successful in effect."
– Hermann Voss, from Baroque Painting in Rome (1925), revised and translated by Thomas Pelzel (San Francisco: Alan Wofsy, 1997)
Giovanni Domenico Cerrini Virgin Mary triumphing over Heresy, with Fall of the Rebel Angels ca. 1674-75 ceiling fresco Chiesa Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome |
Giovanni Domenico Cerrini Assumption of the Virgin ca. 1674-75 cupola fresco Chiesa Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome |
Giovanni Domenico Cerrini St John the Baptist before 1681 oil on canvas private collection |
Giovanni Domenico Cerrini St John the Baptist before 1681 oil on canvas Chiesa di San Giacomo Apostolo dei Domenicani, Forlì |
Giovanni Domenico Cerrini St John the Baptist before 1681 oil on canvas private collection |
Giovanni Domenico Cerrini Rebecca at the Well before 1681 oil on canvas private collection |
Giovanni Domenico Cerrini Penitent Magdalen before 1681 oil on canvas Museo d'Arte della città di Ravenna |
attributed to Giovanni Domenico Cerrini Salome with the Head of St John the Baptist before 1681 oil on canvas National Gallery, Athens |
Giovanni Domenico Cerrini Mercury before 1681 oil on canvas private collection |
Giovanni Domenico Cerrini Holy Family with Angels 1652 etching by Giovanni Battista Benaschi after painting by Cerrini Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (Achenbach Foundation) |
Giovanni Domenico Cerrini Pentecost before 1681 drawing Museo del Prado, Madrid |
"Few drawings by Cerrini are known to exist, but this one, bearing a contemporary inscription in the hand of the artist, may be regarded as autograph, particularly as the compositional and figural dispositions are consistent with the artist's paintings. The seated Virgin at center is surrounded by Apostles striking a variety of attitudes. The active and crowded scene derives more from Pietro da Cortona than from Cerrini's direct masters, Guido Reni and Domenichino. It must have been created in the final period of Cerrini's career, when he had fallen under the classicizing influence and grand rhetoric of Carlo Maratti – yet does not correspond directly to any known painting."
– from curator's notes at Museo del Prado