CANTARINI, SIMONE. - Painter and engraver, b. at Oropezza (Pesaro) in 1612, d. at Verona on 16 Oct. 1648, a pupil of Claudio Ridolfi, he also studied the works of the Venetians and of Federico Barocci.
Attracted by the art of Reni, he moved to his school; he then went to Rome, where he came under the influence of the works of Raphael. Having returned to Bologna, he had a very well-known and much-frequented workshop; he was in Mantua, summoned there by that duke, for whom he made a portrait. As the latter was not satisfied, C. left Mantua and took refuge in Verona, where he died.
An eclectic and academic painter, C. is to be considered a disciple of Reni, to whose art he remained bound despite the disagreements that had for a time arisen between the two; Malvasia found him "the most graceful colourist and the most correct draughtsman of his century," but his worth must be confined within the narrow limits of a facile and broad popularizer of the Bolognese pictorial current of his time.
He was a notable engraver and for his compositions he also made large use of the models offered him by the works of Veronese, of the Carracci and of Reni himself.
Numerous works of his are in Bologna, in the Marches and in Italian and foreign galleries. Mentioned are: La trasfigurazione, in S. Urbano at Bologna; S. Antonio, at Cagli (Pesaro); the Assunta, in the picture gallery of Bologna; a Sacra Famiglia, in the Borghese gallery at Rome; Joseph and the wife of Potiphar, in the gallery of Dresden; etc.
Bibliography4 works
Pietro Zampetti