Cleopatra

Since the very beginning of his artistic career, Giacinto Gimignani showed his interest in the two main artists that worked in Rome in the first half of the XVII century: Pietro da Cortona nd Nicolas Poussin. The former happened to be his master and from him he took his passion for the ancient world, historical subjects (depicted very often with erotic style) and the wide setting of his works. He shared these characteristics with other artists of his time, such as Giovan Francesco Romanelli whose works have been erroneously attributed to Gimignani quite often. From Poussin he took his love for colours, even because that was the common fashion in Rome at that time, and some particular figures Poussin used quite often. The classicist framwork of his production, thogh, derived from Domenichino, whose works he studied. The lunettes in S. Carlo ai Catinari and the ornaments of Palazzo Pamphilj can be considered examples of his peculiar mix, to which we have to add a few elements he took from Andrea Sacchi when they ahd worked together in 1640 for the Visione di Costantino i the Battistero Lateranense. He went to Florence around 1650, where he realized some paintings that are nowadays kept in Palazzo Rospigliosi and a painting for Palazzo Vecchio; he then came back to Rome to work with Cortese and his son Ludovico in Castelgandolfo (1660), Ariccia (1666) and San Lorenzo in Lucina (1664). Twenty-seven etchings have been listed as part of his curpus, realized with a sharp point and with very clear edges, to testify his love for classicism; nevertheless, it can be noticed also his knowledge of painting in his landscapes.