Pasquale Cati

Pope Pius IV promulgates the bull "Benedictus Deus" (1588), fresco, Altemps chapel

Pasquale Cati (c. 1520–c. 1620) was an Italian Mannerist painter active mostly in Rome.

Born in Jesi, Cati moved to Rome, where he was known as a follower, if not pupil, of Michelangelo, and later of Federigo Zuccaro. Among his works are frescoes in the Remigius chapel of San Luigi dei Francesi, frescoes depicting the life of the Titular saint in San Lorenzo in Panisperna, and in walls and vault in the Altemps chapel in Santa Maria in Trastevere. He is also known for a painting depicting the assembled clergy for the Council of Trent.

Council of Trent (1588), Santa Maria in Trastevere, Rome

Cati was one of the painters engaged during the papacy of Gregory XIII in painting the ceiling of the Galleria Geografica. The maps on the wall had been painted by Ignazio Danti, but the ceiling decorations were completed by a team working under Girolamo Muziano that included Cati, Raffaelino da Reggio, Paris Nogari, Ottaviano Mascherini, Marco da Faenza, Giovanni da Modena, Girolamo Massei, Giacomo Sementa, Lorenzino da Bologna, Antonio Danti, Antonio Tempesta, and Paolo Brill.^[1]

Art Historian Luigi Lanzi briefly takes note of him as an inexhaustible painter of that age, though somewhat affected.^[2] Giovanni Baglione mentions him in his biographies.

References

1. Nuova descrizione di Roma antica e moderna, e de' suoi contorni, By Carlo Fea, page 129-130.
2. • Lanzi, Luigi (1828). Thomas Roscoe (translator), ed. History of Painting in Italy; From the Period of the Revival of the Fine Arts to the End of the Eighteenth Century (Volume I). London; Original from Oxford University, digitized January, 2007: W. Simpkin and R. Marshall. p. 158.

Further reading

• Baglione, Giovanni (1641). Giovanni Battista Passari, ed. Le Vite de’ Pittori, Scultori, Architetti, ed Intagliatori dal Pontificato di Gregorio XII del 1572. fino a’ tempi de Papa Urbano VIII. nel 1642. (Lives of the painters, sculptors, architects, and engravers during the papacies of Gregory XII in 1572 to Urban VIII in 1642). 1731 edition (Naples); Digitized by Googlebooks. p. 106.
• Freedberg, Sydney J. (1993). Pelican History of Art, ed. Painting in Italy, 1500-1600. Penguin Books Ltd. p. 654.
• Ticozzi, Stefano (1830). Dizionario degli architetti, scultori, pittori, intagliatori in rame ed in pietra, coniatori di medaglie, musaicisti, niellatori, intarsiatori d’ogni etá e d’ogni nazione (Volume 1). Gaetano Schiepatti; digitized by Googlebooks, Jan 24, 2007. p. 299.