Lodovico or Ludovico Cardi (21 September 1559 – 8 June 1613), also known as Cigoli, was an Italian painter and architect of the late

Mannerist Mannerism is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, when the Baroque style largely replaced it ...

and early

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

period, trained and active in his early career in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

, and spending the last nine years of his life in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

Biography

Lodovico Cardi was born at Villa Castelvecchio in Cigoli,

Tuscany Tuscany ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of 3,660,834 inhabitants as of 2025. The capital city is Florence. Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy, and its in ...

, whence the name by which he is commonly known. Initially, Cigoli trained in Florence under the fervid mannerist Alessandro Allori, and studied the works of

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6March 147518February 1564), known mononymously as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was inspir ...

Correggio Antonio Allegri da Correggio (August 1489 – 5 March 1534), usually known as just Correggio (, also , , ), was an Italian Renaissance painter who was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the High Renaissance, who was responsible for som ...

, Andrea del Sarto and Pontormo. Later, influenced by the most prominent of the " Counter-''Maniera''" painters, Santi di Tito, as well as by Barocci, Cigoli shed the shackles of mannerism and infused his later paintings with an expressionism often lacking from 16th-century Florentine painting. For the Roman patron, Massimo Massimi, he painted an '' Ecce Homo'' (now in Palazzo Pitti). Supposedly unbeknownst to any of the painters, two other prominent contemporary painters, Passignano and

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (also Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi da Caravaggio; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), known mononymously as Caravaggio, was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the fina ...

, had been requested canvases on the same theme. This work was afterwards taken by

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

to the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

, and was restored to Florence in 1815. One of his early paintings was of ''Cain slaying Abel''. He then gained the employ of the Grand-Duke in some works for the Pitti Palace, where he painted a ''Venus and Satyr'' and a ''Sacrifice of Isaac''. Other important pictures are ''St. Peter Healing the Lame Man'' in St Peter's; an unfinished ''Burial of St. Paul'' in the church of San Paolo fuori le Mura, and a ''Story of Psyche'' in a fresco incorporated in the decorative scheme of the Villa Borghese; a ''Martyrdom of Stephen'', which earned him the name of the "Florentine

", and a ''Stigmata of St. Francis'' at Florence. Shortly before his death, Cigoli was made a Knight of Malta at the request of Pope Paul V. As stated by the prominent 17th-century painter, Andrea Sacchi, Cigoli's, ''St Peter Healing the Lame Man'' came to be recognized as the third most beautiful painting in Rome after Raphael's ''Transfiguration'' and Domenichino's ''The Last Communion of St Jerome''. Cigoli's fame and influence, even prior to coming to Rome, was of such a degree that the Florentine ambassador to the city greeted the artist on his arrival to the Eternal City. In Baldanucci's ''Notizie'' or lives of the artists, Cigoli is the only artist, along with Michelangelo, given the unique title of "Divine". Cigoli, a close personal friend of

Galileo Galilei Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei ( , , ) or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a poly ...

– and regarded by him as the greatest painter of the age – painted a last fresco in the dome of the Pauline chapel of the church of

Santa Maria Maggiore Santa Maria Maggiore (), also known as the Basilica of Saint Mary Major or the Basilica of Saint Mary the Great, is one of the four Basilicas in the Catholic Church#Major and papal basilicas, major papal basilicas and one of the Seven Pilgrim C ...

in Rome, depicting the Madonna standing upon a pock-marked lunar orb. This is the first extant example of Galileo's discoveries about the physical nature of the Moon (as he himself drew it in his 1610 treatise '' Sidereus Nuncius'') having penetrated the visual arts practice of his day. Until this image, the Moon in pictures of the Virgin had always been mythical and smooth, perfectly spherical as described by Platonic & Ptolemaic tradition. His pupils include Cristofano Allori (1577–1621), the Fleming Giovanni Biliverti (1576–1644), Domenico Fetti, Giovanni Antonio Lelli, Aurelio Lomi, Pietro Medici, Gregorio Pagani, and Andrea Comodi (1560–1638).

References

Sources

* *

External links

''Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi''
a fully digitized exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries, which contains material on Cigoli (see index) {{DEFAULTSORT:Cigoli, Lodovico 1559 births 1613 deaths People from San Miniato 16th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 17th-century Italian painters Painters from Tuscany Italian Mannerist painters Italian Mannerist architects