David and Goliath. Painting of Guido Cagnacci school. XVII century

 David with the Head of Goliath. Guido Cagnacci , school of

David with the head of Goliath (or the triumph of David).
Guido Cagnacci (1601-1663), school of.
Oil on canvas.
XVII century carved wood frame with original gilding, with laurel wreath motif with ribbon.
Dimension without frame h 104 cm x L 87 cm

This painting is a splendid example of 17th-century Caravaggism.

Our painting is a work of the school or workshop of the painter Guido Cagnacci.
Painter was born in Romagna, in 1601 died in Vienna in 1663.
An enigmatic painter who began his training in Bologna in 1617.

Although he was not a direct student of Reni and Ludovico Carracci, he was influenced by the Bolognese artistic current of tempoi.
He probably moved to Rome with Guercino, where he will be in close contact, sharing accommodation and establishing a relationship of friendship with Guercino. In these years the painter had already made talk about whether following a sentimental scandal, trying to kidnap and marry a widow, aristocratic, from the convent.
Among various bizarre ways of painter’s life we know that he loved to paint female models dressed in male clothes.
This was partly due to the fact that the model named Maddalena with whom Guido lived in Venice was disguised as a man for prudence.
After Bologna, who had arrived from Cento the twenty-eight-year-old Guercino, Guido moved to Rome for at least two stays, the longest of which the last one in 1621-1622. Perhaps following the Guercino when archbishop of Bologna became Pope Gregory XV Ludovisi for whom the Master of Cento had worked. Guercino and Cagnacci lived in a house on the current Via del Babuino in Rome, inserting themselves into the artistic circle gravitated the Parisian Simon Vouet and Serodine.
Thus it can be Vouet that influenced a very personal Caravaggism, less tragic and more sensual, with veiled eroticism expressing Cagnacci, taking inspiration from the solutions of theatrical light of the Nordic painter.

Guido Cagnacci’s biography is a field almost all studied due to the absence of documents and paintings in Bologna and Rome and even before.
However scholars manage to date the original painting of Davide and Goliath of the Paul Getty Museum in the years 1645-1650. Years before painter's stay in Venice or at the beginning of the stay in lagoon, where the painter, now known for his non -religious compositions for private clients, with very sensual semi-nude female figures (Lucrezia, Maddalena, Cleopatra etc.)
The painter concludes his career in Vienna, at the court of the emperor. Guido Cagnacci’s biography is a field almost all studied due to the absence of documents and paintings in Bologna and Rome and even before.
Anyway scholars manage to date the original painting of Davide and Goliath of the Paul Getty Museum in the years 1645-1650. Years before the dream of the painter in Venice or at the beginning of the stay lagoon, dove the painter, now known for his compositions "from chamber", with very sensual female figures (Lucrezia, Maddalena, Cleopatra etc.)
The painter concludes his career in Vienna, at the court of the emperor.