27 Facts About Simone Cantarini

Simone Cantarini or Simone da Pesaro, called il Pesarese was an Italian painter and etcher.

Simone Cantarini is known mainly for his history paintings and portraits executed in an original style, which united aspects of Bolognese classicism with a bold naturalism.

Simone Cantarini's father Girolamo was a prominent merchant and the family was well-off.

Simone Cantarini started to receive commissions and one of his earliest masterpieces was the St Peter Healing the Lame Man, which was placed in the church of San Pietro in Valle in Fano.

Presumably around 1634 Simone Cantarini joined Reni's studio, which was located in the via delle Pescherie near the piazza Maggiore in the old city centre of Bologna.

Reni considered Simone Cantarini an experienced artist as he was allowed to stay on the principal floor of the house, which was reserved for Reni's more valued followers.

Simone Cantarini further refused to engrave Guido's designs on the ground that his own works were as much worthy of publication.

The break with Reni lead to a drought in new commissions, which forced Simone Cantarini to leave Bologna.

Simone Cantarini is recorded back in his native Pesaro in 1639.

Simone Cantarini is said to have had a relationship with a local young woman with whom he had extramarital children.

Simone Cantarini made a brief trip to Rome in 1640 or 1641.

In 1647, Simone Cantarini was invited to Mantua by Carlo II Gonzaga of Nevers.

Simone Cantarini became seriously ill and moved to Verona, where he died.

Some biographers claim that Simone Cantarini had created a scandal through his behavior and criticisms of the Gonzaga collection and it was suspected that he was poisoned by an angry rival.

Simone Cantarini was principally a painter of the Counterreformation who painted religious subjects.

Simone Cantarini was particularly interested in depicting scenes involving the Holy Family and the Holy Virgin, either in portrait settings with St Joseph and other saints or in scenes like the flight into Egypt.

Simone Cantarini was able to develop his own personal style from what he had learned from Reni combining elements of Baroque with Classicist tendencies.

Simone Cantarini's presumed master Claudio Ridolfi instilled in him an appreciation of Federico Barocci, which was reflected in the soft sfumato of the faces of his Virgins and saints, their idyllic mood and tender feeling.

Simone Cantarini further drew inspiration from the caravaggesque art of Orazio Gentileschi and Giovanni Francesco Guerrieri from whom he acquired a powerful naturalism.

Simone Cantarini made copies of, and made sketches after, Reni's work.

Simone Cantarini abandoned academic classicism in favour of the naturalism of his youth.

Already from his earliest days as an artist, Simone Cantarini distinguished himself as a portrait painter.

Simone Cantarini's earliest known portrait is a Portrait of a nun.

Simone Cantarini was a prolific etcher to whom are attributed with certainty 37 plates of mythological, religious and allegorical subjects, all of exceptional quality.

Simone Cantarini's prints were praised in his lifetime for their extraordinary delicacy and vibrant and luminous quality.

Simone Cantarini was able to imbue his plates with a new spirit, treating them in the same way as a piece of paper by using nervous and flickering signs.

Simone Cantarini is known to have followed a set procedure in the design and creation of his prints: he would start with a general sketch of the composition in pen or pencil.