BORGIANNI, ORAZIO. — Painter, born in Rome in 1578. He learned the rudiments of drawing from his brother, the sculptor known as Guido Scalzo. He spent many years in Spain; then returned to Rome around 1605 and died there in 1616. Caravaggisti in style, he nonetheless maintained his own originality, breaking the static quality of Merisi’s luminism, as can be clearly seen in the *David with the Head of Goliath* in the Borghese Gallery, and giving considerable importance to color in his works.
In addition to the aforementioned *David*, we recall the following works by him in Rome: the *Holy Family* in the National Gallery of Ancient Art; *St. Charles Borromeo* in S. Carlo alle Quattro Fontane; *St. Charles among the Plague Victims*, formerly in S. Adriano; the self-portrait in the Accademia di S. Lucia; the portrait of the painter Tommaso Laureti in the same collection; a *Pietà* in the Spada Gallery. In Savona, his *Birth of the Virgin* is preserved in the Sanctuary of the Misericordia. He was also an engraver, and 52 prints depicting subjects from Raphael’s Loggias, marked with his monogram and dated 1615, are known as his work, as well as a *St. Christopher* and a few other sheets.