The Story
Orazio Borgianni (6 April 1574 – 14 January 1616) was an Italian painter and etcher of the Mannerist and early-Baroque periods. He was the stepbrother of the sculptor and architect Giulio Lasso. Borgianni was born in Rome, where he was documented in February 1604. He was instructed in the art of painting by his brother, Giulio Borgianni, called Scalzo. The patronage by Philip II of Spain induced him to visit Spain, where he signed an inventory in January 1605.
He returned to Rome from Spain after April 1605 at the height of his career, and most of the work of his maturity was carried out 1605–16. In Spain, he signed a petition to begin an Italianate academy of painting and executed a series of nine paintings for the Convento de Portacoeli, Valladolid, where they remain. From his time in Spain, there remain two of his paintings in the Prado Museum: St Christopher and the Stigmatization of St Francis and also an attributed selfportrait of youth.
Executed in Oil on canvas, measuring 20 7/8 x 15 3/8 in. (53 x 39 cm), the surface rewards close looking. Orazio Borgianni builds the composition through layered glazes and a tightly controlled palette, letting cool shadows recede so that the warm, lit passages step forward. The brushwork shifts from the precise to the almost dissolved — a hallmark of mature Baroque practice.
“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”
