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| Francesco Cairo Death of Lucretia ca. 1650-60 oil on canvas Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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| Francesco Cairo Death of Cleopatra ca. 1645-50 oil on canvas Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow |
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| Francesco Cairo Judith with the Head of Holofernes ca. 1633-37 oil on canvas John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida |
"Francesco Cairo, also called Francesco del Cairo, born in Varese, began as a student of Morazzone in Milan. He left the city around 1629, perhaps because of the outbreak of the plague there. The artist moved to Turin, and by 1633 was court painter. He was made a knight by Duke Vittorio Amadeo I. Later, Cairo married into the local nobility, taking the daughter of Count Marco Andrea di Scalenghe, Ludovica Piossasco, as his wife. After the death of the duke in 1637, Cairo spent two years in Rome, then returned to work in Lombardy and Venice, painting both religious pictures and portraits."
– from curator's notes at the Royal Collection
"Cairo made something of a specialty of grisly subjects, combining acts of violence and a kind of morbid eroticism."
– from curator's notes at the Metropolitan Museum
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| Francesco Cairo Herodias with the Head of St John the Baptist ca. 1625-30 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Francesco Cairo Herodias (cut down by an early owner to remove the Head of St John the Baptist) before 1635 oil on canvas Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Francesco Cairo Tarquin and Lucretia ca. 1630 oil on canvas Musei Civici di Villa Mirabello, Varese |
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| Francesco Cairo St Francis in Ecstasy ca. 1633-35 oil on canvas Pinacoteca del Castello Sforzesco, Milan |
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| Francesco Cairo St Christina of Bolsena ca. 1638 oil on canvas Pinacoteca del Castello Sforzesco, Milan |
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| Francesco Cairo Martha reproving Mary ca. 1650-55 oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nîmes |
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| Francesco Cairo Sibyl before 1665 oil on canvas National Trust, Melford Hall, Suffolk |
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| Francesco Cairo Mystic Marriage of St Catherine ca. 1650 oil on canvas Musée des Augustins de Toulouse |
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| Francesco Cairo Portrait of Luigi Scaramuccia ca. 1657-60 oil on canvas Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan |
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| Francesco Cairo St Catherine of Siena ca. 1650-53 oil on canvas Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan |
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| Francesco Cairo Allegory of Painting ca. 1630 oil on canvas private collection |