Giovanni Battista Paggi (genoa, 1554-1627) - Holy Family

Giovanni Battista Paggi (Genoa, 1554-1627) - Holy Family Giovanni Battista Paggi (Genoa, 1554-1627) - Holy Family Experties: Prof. Camillo Manzitti dimensions: canvas 102x86, frame 115x99cm The painting reproduced here, representing the Holy Family (oil on canvas, 102 x 86 cm), is a certain work of the Genoese painter Giovanni Battista Paggi (Genoa 1554 - 1627). Of noble origin, endowed with a vast literary culture thanks to his early studies, Paggi had no trouble easily making friends in the highest intellectual sphere of the time. Self-taught, he was master of himself and of the talent brought to him by Mother Nature, thanks to which he was able to re-elaborate with inspiration the ideas captured by the best in painting. But above all, his friendship with Luca Cambiaso, generous with advice and teaching, was greatly strengthened by his desire to learn. He was also able to take advantage of the many years spent in Florence during a twenty-year exile in Tuscany (1579-1599) due to a conviction for fatally wounding a man in an armed conflict. This occasion brought him a great familiarity with the Florentine painters and especially with the Cigoli, for a mutual exchange of stimuli and influences. The works painted in Florence for various churches were so successful that they were reproduced on engravings by the great Flemish engraver Cornelis Galle and distributed everywhere. This Holy Family is probably linked to the time of his return to his native country, or at least towards the end of the Tuscan stay, as the obvious analogies with works that are certainly documented or dated at the turn of the century suggest. This is the moment when his painting indulges in poetic accents of affectionate and gentle sentimentality, where the exchange of amorous meaning in the atmospheres of daily domestic life often prevails over the cultivated but austere literary inflections, specific to the intellectual sphere. of belonging.