Madonna with Franciscan Saints (Franciscan Altarpiece)

Cesare Baciocchi, who signed his works under his mother’s nname of Pronti, perhaps to separate his artistic identity from his spiritual role as an Augustinian priest, was a painter from Cattolica who was active in the second half of the 17th century, mainly in Forlì and Ravenna.

As recalled by his only biographer, Lione Pascoli, he displayed a precocious talent and passion for fine art and he received his initial training in Rome, at the studios of Guercino. Having taken up religious orders, he stopped painting for many years, but he later completed his training at the studios of Carlo Cignani in Forlì, with whom he worked on the deocration of Palazzo Albicini. This altarpiece depicts the Virgin Mary on a throne with the Infant Jesus, surrounded by saints and priests from the Franciscan order, including St Anthony of Padua, St Francis, and Paschal Baylon holding the monstrance, the style of which Viroli considered to be “typically Bolognese” (Viroli, 1991; Gori, 2001). Commissioned for a Franciscan area, this painting is very likely a late work by Pronti, which retains both his affinity for Guercino’s naturalism (in the composition and the details, such as the emaciated face of St Francis), and a mature take on the softer classicism of Carlo Cignani (consider St Anthony of Padua) (Viroli, 1991; Gori, 2001). The grey and earthy tones which characterise the chromatic scale could be interpreted as a reference to the “systematic love for poverty and humility” of the Franciscan movement (Viroli, 1991).