Biography

Italian painter. He was a pupil of Santi di Tito, whom he followed in the creation of a new naturalist style that satisfied the demands of the Counter-Reformation church for a direct and simple religious art. The clarity of his early Calling of St Andrew (Pescia Cathedral) and the modest domestic interior in the Birth of the Virgin (1593; Florence, San Michelino Visdomini) are indebted to Santi.

He was appointed 'Camarlingo' of Florentine Accademia del Disegno in May 1594. He went to Rome with Giovanni Balducci, presumably at invitation of Cardinal Alessandro de' Medici then engaged in redecorating his new titular church, Santa Prassede. Accommodated by the Cardinal in his own palace, in the sala of which was hung a painting by Ciampelli of the 'Marriage at Cana', brought from Florence.

While in Rome, Agostino painted a Crucifixion for Santa Prassede, angels on the walls of the apse of Santa Maria in Trastevere, and frescoes in the little church of Santa Bibiana. Two of his finest works in fresco are in the Chiesa del Gesù, representing the Martyrdom of St Andrew, and a Glory of Saints and Angels on the ceiling.