Michelangelo Cinganelli

1558 – 1635

Italian painter and draftsman. He was a pupil of and strongly influenced by Bernardino Poccetti of Florence. Along with Orazio Riminaldi, he painted the four Evangelists and angels (1597) in the cupola of the Cathedral of Pisa; a Birth of the Virgin and Annunciation (1598) in the choir; and decoration of the organ in 1602. He also painted in the church of San Domenico, Pistoia. During the long regency (1621-28) before Ferdinando II de' Medici (1610-1670) came of age, his mother Maria Magdalena of Austria ruled. Cinganelli was her preferred painter to continue the decoration of the Palazzo Pitti. Cinganelli designed large pictorial cycles, including, in 1625-27, part of the vault and lunettes in the Sala della Stufa, where between 1637 and 1641 Pietro da Cartona frescoed the walls with the Four Ages of Man. He is documented as working for the tapestry shop of the Medici in Florence, he executed the drawings and cartoons for a set of tapestries of the Story of Samson for the palace. Cinganelli supervised the designs by Ludovico Cigoli of the principal chapel in the church of Santa Felicità in Florence, and frescoed the chapel in 1620.

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