(b Sermoneta, 21 Aug 1752; d Rome, 18 Nov 1795). Italian painter. His youthful gifts were recognized by the Duke of Sermoneta, Francesco Caetani (1738–1810), who took Cavallucci to Rome in 1765. There he studied with Stefano Pozzi and, after 1768, with Gaetano Lapis. He also studied drawing at the Accademia di S Luca and was once thought to have been associated with the studios of Anton Raphael Mengs and Pompeo Batoni. Cavallucci’s earliest works include a tempera frieze in the Casa Cavallucci in Sermoneta (mid-1760s; see Röttgen, fig. 4) and figure and drapery studies (c. 1769–71; Rome, Gal. Accad. N. S Luca). His first known portrait, of Francesco Caetani, is preserved in an engraving of 1772 by Pietro Leone Bombelli (1737–1809). Three pictures from 1773—Abigail before David (Rome, Pal. Caetani), the Departure of Hector and Andromache (Rome, Gal. Accad. N. S Luca) and the Crucifixion with Saints (Rome, Pal. Corsini)—all demonstrate a tempered academic style, fluid plasticity and delicate manner. Cavallucci’s most distinguished work for the Caetani began in 1776 when he was commissioned to decorate five audience chambers in the Palazzo Caetani, Rome, with canvases showing mythological scenes and familial allegories appropriate to the individual theme of each room. The assured style of these pictures confirms Cavallucci’s reputation as one of the foremost Neo-classical artists in Rome in the late 18th century, but they equally reveal a new, neo-Baroque tendency in the reformulation of 16th-century precedents, especially those derived from Raphael.

• Cavallucci, Antonio
  • Sequeira: (1) Domingos António de Sequeira, §1: Early work and Roman period, 1788–94