Arpino, Giuseppe Cesari (1568-1640)

Italian Mannerist painter. He was employed by successive popes 1590-1615, mainly executing fresco decorations and designing the mosaics in the dome of St Peter's basilica, Rome.

His early works showed much promise, and he enjoyed great success in his own time with large decorative undertakings for a succession of popes, working also for foreign courts and princes. He represented an insipid Mannerism, in contrast to the learned style of the Carracci and the new realism of Caravaggio (who worked in his studio), though he long outlived these contemporary rivals.