page_title: Simone Cantarini
section_title: General
hierarchical_section_title: Simone Cantarini / Work / General
context_page_description: Simone Cantarini or Simone da Pesaro, called il Pesarese was an Italian painter and etcher. He is mainly known for his history paintings and portraits executed in an original style, which united aspects of Bolognese classicism with a bold naturalism.
  Cantarini was also a gifted etcher who achieved extraordinary delicacy and a vibrant and luminous quality in his graphic work.
context_section_description: Cantarini was principally a painter of the Counterreformation who painted religious subjects.  The majority of Reni's compositions deal with religious subject matter, principally taken from the New Testament.  He 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.  He was also a gifted portrait painter.  Cantarini was further a prolific engraver and draughtsman.
  His work shows the influence of various artists with the influence of Guido Reni being the most important one.  He was able to develop his own personal style from what he had learned from Reni combining elements of Baroque with Classicist tendencies.
  His early works reveal a Venetian influence by their clear interest in light and colour.  His 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. His early works show further his study of the works of Raphael and the early work of Correggio. He further drew inspiration from the caravaggesque art of Orazio Gentileschi and Giovanni Francesco Guerrieri from whom he acquired a powerful naturalism.
  In the early 1630s he became increasingly absorbed in the work of Guido Reni that was present in various churches in and around his hometown. He made copies of, and made sketches after, Reni's work. An early work reflecting this influence of Reni is St Peter Healing the Lame Man (church of San Pietro in Valle, Fano) dating from around 1634. Other works from this early period are the Saint Thomas of Villanova (Pinacoteca Civica, Fano) and the Virgin of the girdle.
  During his stay in Reni's studio the influence of Reni only became stronger.  After the rupture with Reni, Cantarini's work developed towards a more personal style. He abandoned academic classicism in favour of the naturalism of his youth.  He also developed a freer, more lyrical style.
  In this period he created the Rest on the Flight into Egypt (Louvre, Paris) and Susanna and the Elders (c. 1640; Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna). After his visit to Rome in the early 1640s he moved closer to the tradition of Raphael, yet without abandoning naturalism. His Rest on the Flight into Egypt (Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan) is based on Raphael's Madonna del Velo (Musée Condé, Chantilly). Other works from this period show an influence of Venetian painting and a development towards freeer brushwork.
caption: Saint Cecilia
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