Sacred and Profane Love

1602 · Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome

mythological

Baglione painted this canvas, alongside of another version now in Berlin, for the Cardinal Benedetto Giustiniani. The two works follow on the heels of and make reference to Caravaggio's Love Victorious, painted in 1601 for the Marquis Vincenzo Giustiniani. The canvas dates to just before the famous court trial that marked Baglione's definitive split with the circle of his contemporary, Caravaggio: it is thus a document of the phase of Baglione's career in which he most closely approximated Caravaggio's methods.

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About the Artist

Giovanni Baglione

1566 – 1643

Roman painter, one of Caravaggio 's strongest personal adversaries in Roman artistic circles, who is known to posterity almost exclusively through his very sober and reliable "Vite de' Pittori" (Lives of Painters), published at the end of his long lifetime. His animosity toward Caravaggio is shown in almost every line of his biography. On the other hand, he was despised and derided by Caravaggio's clique. As an artist Baglione was, strangely enough, a follower of Caravaggio, especially in his use of light and dark. He published a long list of his works at the end of his autobiography, but in spite of some very interesting performances, he never really developed a consistent and expressive artistic personality.

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