Carlo Saraceni (1579 – 1620)

• Was an Italian early-Baroque painter.
• He was born and died in Venice.
• He moved to Rome in 1598, joining the Accademia di San Luca in 1607.
• He never visited France, though he spoke fluent French.
• When Caravaggio's notorious Death of the Virgin was rejected in 1606 as an altarpiece suitable for a chapel of Santa Maria della Scala, it was Saraceni who provided the acceptable substitute, the only securely dated painting of his first decade in Rome.
• He was influenced by Caravaggio's dramatic lighting, monumental figures, naturalistic detail, and momentary action, so that he is numbered among the first of the "tenebrists" or "Caravaggisti".
• In 1620 he returned to Venice, where he died in the same year.
• The displayed painting is a crop from: Carlo Saraceni, The Martyrdom of St. Cecilia, c. 1610.
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