Francesco Cairo is one of the last protagonists of the great flowering of Milanese baroque art, best known for his series of tragic heroines which depict an equivocal moment of extreme emotion and a morbid fascination with violence and death.
Francesco Cairo, also known as Francesco del Cairo, is one of the last protagonists of the great flowering of Milanese baroque art at the beginning of the seventeenth century. He is best known for his series of tragic heroines, usually painted on an intimate scale, which depict an equivocal moment of extreme emotion and a morbid fascination with violence and death. Cairo was probably taught by Morazzone (1573–1626), whose rich palette of oranges, purples and greens and whose blend of mannerism and ecstatic baroque sentiment he adopted. In 1633 Cairo was summoned to Turin to work as court painter to Victor-Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy. It is in the Galleria Sabauda in Turin that one can see the greatest concentration of Cairo’s work including such famous compositions as Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, Herodias with the Head of St John the Baptist and the Martyrdom of St Agnes. These were extremely popular and he painted several autograph versions and variants of each. Both the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York own versions of Herodias.
In the 1640s Cairo moved away from the idiosyncratic intensity of his earlier style. He spent time in Lombardy again and went to Rome. Looking at artists such as Pietro da Cortona (1596–1669) and Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1599–1641), we see a new tendency for lighter color and his figures become more ample and Venetian, as is evident in works such as the Death of Lucretia in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. In 1648, Cairo returned to Milan where there continued to be a demand for his neo-Venetian style. He died a wealthy man with a significant collection of his own; the inventory made of his goods included paintings by Van Dyck, Rubens, Guido Reni and Salvator Rosa.
Selected artworks
Top 3 auction prices
1999
2003
2015
Details
Past exhibition
Notable exhibitions
Cremona, Museo Civico Ala Ponzone, Painters of Reality: The Legacy of Leonardo and Caravaggio in Lombardy, 14 February – 2 May 2004; travelled to New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 27 May – 15 August 2004. Curated by Andrea Bayer, Mina Gregori and Ivana Iotta.
Busto Arsizio, Musei Civici di Varese, Francesco Cairo: 1607–1665, 1 October – 31 December 1983.
Birmingham, City Museums and Art Gallery, Lombard Paintings c. 1595-c.1630: The Age of Federico Borromeo, 1974. Curated by Peter Cannon-Brooks.
Milan, Palazzo Reale, Il Seicento Lombardo, 1973. Curated by Giulio Bora.
Turin, Palazzo Madama, Mostra del Manierismo piemontese e lombardo del Seicento, 6 May – 26 June 1955. Curated by Giovanni Testori.
Books on Francesco Cairo
Virginia Brilliant, Faithful to Nature, Eleven Lombard Paintings 1530-1760, exh. cat., New York, 2019.
Francesco Frangi, Francesco Cairo, Turin, 1997 and 1998.
Bona Castelotti, La Pittura lombarda del ‘600, Milan, 1985.
Francesco Cairo 1607-65, exh. cat. Milan, 1983.
Peter Cannon-Brooks, ed., Lombard Paintings c. 1595-c.1630: The Age of Federico Borromeo, exh. cat. Birmingham, 1974.