His contemporaries called him “il genio bizzaro” (the bizarre genius), and he signed his paintings, “Guido Cagnacci Inventore.” His theatrical compositions, racy stylistic choices, ambivalent figures, and varied painterly techniques stand out as his own artistic language. (http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/2185415-guido-cagnaccis-eccentric-repentant-magdalene/) You would be forgiven for never having heard of Cagnacci.... He conducted his professional life in the typical Baroque manner, taking in students, producing multiples of commercially demanded works, and jockeying for patronage, sometimes with success. Notably, in 1635 Cagnacci’s work suddenly took a turn for the better. Scholars cautiously attribute this to contact with the work of Guido Reni in Bologna. Another possibility... is that he obtained a camera obscura. Cagnacci had already cribbed from other artists—Virgin and Child with Saints Sebastian, Roch, and Hyacinth quotes a Ludovico Carracci St. Sebastian from 1599 verbatim—and wouldn’t have been above such things. One of the more convincing demonstrations in David Hockney’s controversial book Secret Knowledge cites Cagnacci’s Death of Cleopatra and its repetition of one model in various poses as evidence of the camera’s assistance. Regardless of how he managed it, Cagnacci improved, learning on the job and... (http://www.newcriterion.com/posts.cfm/Guido-Cagnacci-at-the-Frick-8319) Guido Cagnacci is among the most eccentric painters who worked in 17th-century Italy. His works, mostly religious in subject, are known for their unashamed, often unsettling, eroticism. Even though his pictorial style was influenced by some of the greatest Italian baroque painters—the Carracci, Guercino, and Guido Reni—his figurative language always remained individual and highly recognizable. The unconventionality of his work led to his being almost entirely forgotten... (http://www.frick.org/press/cagnacci%E2%80%99s_masterpiece_repentant_magdalene_comes_frick_fall) undefined

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