Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Simone Cantarini

CANTARINI, Simone (1612-1648), called Simone da Pesaro, a painter and etcher, was born at Oropezza near Pesaro in 1612. He was a disciple of Guido, and a fellow-student of Domenichino and Albano. The irritability of his temper and his vanity were extreme; and it is said that his death, which took place at Verona in 1648, was occasioned by chagrin at his failure in a portrait of the duke of Mantua. Others relate that he was poisoned by a Mantuan painter whom he had injured. His pictures, though masterly and spirited, are deficient in originality. Some of his works have been mistaken for examples of Guido, to whom, indeed, he is considered superior in the extremities of the figures. Among his principal paintings are St Anthony, at Cagli; the Magdalene, at Pesaro; the Transfiguration, in the Brera Gallery, Milan; the Portrait of Guido, in the Bologna Gallery; and St Romuald in the Casa Paolucci. His most celebrated etching is Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto, honouring the arms of Cardinal Borghese.