Italian painter, Roman school (b. 1599, Nettuno, d. 1661, Roma).Italian painter and designer. He occupied an important position, midway between Annibale Carracci and Carlo Maratti, in the development of a more restrained, less decorative painting in 17th-century Rome, a trend that culminated in the 18th century with Pompeo Batoni. Sacchi trained with Francesco Albani, Carracci's student, and taught Maratti. His often expressed devotion to the art of Raphael and Carracci and his criticism of the views of Pietro da Cortona and Gianlorenzo Bernini made him, with Nicolas Poussin and Alessandro Algardi, one of the most significant representatives of a stylistic and aesthetic opposition to the more flamboyant, extrovert aspects of the High Baroque. Sacchi did not, however, share Poussin's passionate interest in Classical antiquity, nor was his mature work as cerebral. Yet his mature style, less richly coloured than his early manner and more restrained emotionally,
Portrait of Monsignor Clemente Merlini sf
c. 1630 Oil on canvas Galleria Borghese, Rome