After an apprenticeship in the workshop of Denys Calvaert
, he entered the \b \cf4 \ATXht1255 Carracci\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 academy at a very early age. Here he was able to join in the debate over the problems of a modern naturalism and devote himself to the study of the Antique and \b \cf4 \ATXht1201 Raphael\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 . Moving to Rome at the beginning of the seventeenth century, he came into contact with a vast range of experiences, including that of Caravaggio. He did a great deal of work for the pontificate and for the family of Scipione Borghese in particu
lar. Returning to Bologna, he carried on with his research, becoming an outstanding exponent of seventeenth-century classical painting with a reputation that spread to the rest of Europe.
