Baglione, Giovanni

Baglione, Giovanni (b Rome, c.1570; d Rome, 30 Dec. 1643).
Italian painter and writer. He had a fairly successful career as a painter (mainly of religious works), but his pictures are now virtually forgotten and he is remembered rather as the author of Le vite de' pittori, scultori, ed architetti…, published in 1642. This collection of biographies is one of the fundamental sources of information for the period covered (1572–1642); it deals mainly with Italian artists but also discusses foreigners working in Rome, such as Bril and Rubens. In 1603 Baglione sued Caravaggio and three other painters for circulating coarse satirical poems about him. His hatred of Caravaggio comes out in the biography devoted to him in his Vite, so it is ironic that his best pictures are his most Caravaggesque (Judith and Holofernes, 1608, Borghese Gal., Rome).