(b Cigoli, nr. San Miniato, 21 Sept. 1559; d Rome, 8 June 1613). The outstanding Florentine painter of his generation, whose work represents the complex stylistic cross-currents in the period of transition from Mannerism to Baroque. He was a pupil of Alessandro Allori, from whom he inherited the tradition of late Mannerism, but his sensuous colour and brushwork reveal the influence of Barocci, Correggio, and Venetian painting. From 1604 he spent most of his time in Rome, and his dramatic handling of light shows the impact of Caravaggio (Ecce Homo, 1606, Pitti, Florence). Cigoli also worked as an architect; he had scholarly inclinations and was a friend of Galileo.
Text source: The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford University Press)