Bernardino Cesari

On a rock below the hunter Actaeon, this canvas carries a Latin signature that tells its own story. It says that Bernardino Cesari of Arpino made it after the example of his brother Joseph. Bernardino was the younger brother of Giuseppe Cesari, the Cavalier d'Arpino, one of the most sought-after painters in Rome around 1600, and he worked largely in his brother's shadow as a draughtsman and copyist.

The picture shows Diana punishing Actaeon for seeing her bathe with her nymphs, and it folds two moments together, the antlers already sprouting while his own hounds get ready to attack. The Galleria Borghese finds Bernardino's handling colder and less soft than his brother's. So few works can be pinned to him that this signed canvas is the foundation for understanding his art. It belonged to Cardinal Scipione Borghese before 1613, when a poem praising the cardinal's collection already described it.