The works by Guido Cagnacci (Santarcangelo di Romagna, 1601 – Vienna, 1663) are characterized by the use of chiaroscuro and by the sensuality displayed by most of the subjects. Cagnacci has partaken in the artistic scene of the Seventeenth Century, interpreting a role of primary importance. He shared the anxieties of the Baroque without renouncing to the dialectic between soul and body, between spirituality and physicality. Famous for the bold sensuality of his female nudes, icons of a pictorial universe imbued with an eloquent eroticism, yet also by an unshakable and lucid sense of real that evokes sentiments, passions, tragedies and violence, the artist was also unbeatable in depicting scene of great religious stories.
Before settling in Forlì he lived in Rome where he had the opportunity to meet the Guercino, Guido Reni and Simon Vouet and he is assumed to have been an apprentice at the now elderly Ludovico Carracci in Bologna. He dedicated himself to the intense production of paintings known as “salon paintings” where is prevalent the theme of the female nude, works that have consecrated the artist’s fame. The staunch occupation with these subjects led him to solutions of extraordinary ease and elegance, attracting, during his time, the favors of a wealth of rich and uninhibited commissioners, and that continue to fascinate nowadays for the provocative and subtle malice flowing through them, for the delicate skin, the languid poses, the cold, liquid lights that evoke voyeuristic atmospheres.