Cecco del Caravaggio

Cecco del Caravaggio is the name given to an early follower of Caravaggio active in Rome in the 1610s and 1620s. His pictures show large, solid figures, strong contrasts of light and dark and crisp, complex drapery folds, with a sharp realism all his own.

He is thought to have been Francesco Boneri, a painter from Lombardy, and he may have been the model for Caravaggio’s Amor Vincit Omnia, though both points are debated. None of his works is signed or dated, which makes his career hard to trace. He painted genre scenes, musicians, portraits and religious works. His Resurrection is in the Art Institute of Chicago, and Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple is in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.

In The Flute Player, look at the sharp light and the directness of the face, typical of Caravaggio’s followers.