Giuseppe Cesari

Arpino, Cavaliere d'
Cesari, called Cavaliere d'Arpino, Giuseppe

Roman, 1568 - 1640

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Italian Mannerist painter (1568–1640)

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A young woman with long blond hair kneels in front of a crowd of about two dozen people, mostly men, under a heavenly group on cloudbanks overhead in this vertical painting. They all have pale or tanned skin. At the bottom center, the young woman, Saint Margaret, kneels facing us as she tips her head down and to our right, her fingertips pressed together in prayer. Her cloak shimmers from pale yellow to coral red over an olive-green gown edged with sapphire blue. A thin gold halo floats over her loose, waist-length hair. A muscular, bare-chested man to our right unsheathes a sword as he twists toward Saint Margaret. An armored man to our right rests one hand on a white and gold shield, which pins dragon to the ground. Another man is on horseback in the crowd beyond, and the rest appear to stand. Some hold halberds and spears. A rocky outcropping rises to our left, and a gray building is in the distance to our right. A woman holding a baby, Mary and Jesus, and two bearded men sit in a cloud bank in the top half of the picture. One man holds an oversized key and the other a sword. They and the people below wear robes and cloaks in tones of golden yellow, royal blue, dark rose pink, or shades of gray and brown. A winged angel holding a crown of leaves and a palm frond flies between the two groups, and more blond-haired angels hover above. Two baby-like putti scatter flowers over Mary. The artist signed the work in the lower left corner as if he had written his name on a rock. It reads, “IOSEPHVS CAESAR ARPINAS.”
Giuseppe Cesari, Martyrdom of Saint Margaret, c. 1608/1611, oil on panel, Gift of David Edward Finley and Margaret Eustis Finley, 1984.4.1

Martyrdom of Saint Margaret

Giuseppe Cesari · c. 1608/1611 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1984.4.1

Prospero Bresciano, Giuseppe Cesari, Pope Sixtus V, 1589, etching, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1973.57.1

Pope Sixtus V

Prospero Bresciano, Giuseppe Cesari · 1589 · etching ·  Accession ID  1973.57.1

Giuseppe Cesari, Allegorical Figure, probably c. 1588, black and red chalk on laid paper, Andrew W. Mellon Fund, 1977.44.1

Allegorical Figure

Giuseppe Cesari · probably c. 1588 · black and red chalk on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1977.44.1

Bibliography

1953

  • Faldi, Italo. "Gli affreschi della cappella Contarelli e l'opera giovanile del Cavalier d'Arpino." Bollettino d'Arte 38 (1953): 45-55.

1960

  • Röttgen, Herwarth. "Cesari, Giuseppe." In Dizionario biografico degli italiani. Edited by Alberto Maria Ghisalberti. 79+ vols. Rome, 1960+: 24(1980):163-167.

1973

  • Röttgen, Herwarth. Cavalier d'Arpino. Exh. cat. Palazzo Venezia, Rome, 1973.

1996

  • De Grazia, Diane, and Eric Garberson, with Edgar Peters Bowron, Peter M. Lukehart, and Mitchell Merling. Italian Paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 61-62.