BORGIANNI, ORAZIO. - Painter, born in Rome in 1578. He learned the rudiments of drawing from his sculptor brother, known as Guido Scalzo. He spent many years in Spain; then returned to Rome around 1605 and died there in 1616. A follower of Caravaggio, he nevertheless succeeded in preserving his own originality, breaking with the static quality of Merisi’s luminism, as may clearly be seen in the David with the Head of Goliath in the Borghese Gallery, and giving considerable importance to colour in his works.
Besides the aforementioned David, the following works by him in Rome should be noted: the Holy Family, in the National Gallery of Ancient Art; St Charles Borromeo, in S. Carlo alle quattro Fontane; St Charles among the Plague-Stricken, formerly in S. Adriano; the self-portrait, in the Accademia di S. Luca; the portrait of the painter Tommaso Laureti, in the same collection; and a Pietà, in the Galleria Spada. At Savona, his Birth of the Virgin is preserved in the sanctuary of the Misericordia. He was also an engraver, and fifty-two prints depicting subjects from Raphael’s Logge, bearing his monogram and dated 1615, are known as his work, as are, besides a few other sheets, a St Christopher.