Cesi was born into a wealthy family and received a humanist education before he studied painting. Little is known of his training, which was probably under Giovanni Francesco Bezzi (c. 1500-1571), and the first commission that is securely attributable to him were the frescoes depicting the Life of the Virgin (1574) in the Vezzi Chapel in S. Stefano, Bologna. Around the same time he also assisted Prospero Fontana (1512-1597) and others in decorating the apse and crypt of Bologna cathedral, although the majority of his work there is now lost. Although there are indications of previous trips to Rome, his earliest documented presence there is 1591, when he painted the Portrait of Ambrogio Morandi, Abbot of S. Salvatore. Also during the early 1590s, Cesi executed another fresco cycle depicting the Life of the Virgin in the chapel of S. Maria dei Bulgari in the Archiginnasio, Bologna. His documented works of the later 1590s include a triptych containing the Adoration of the Magi with Saints Nicholas and Dominic (1595; Bologna, S. Domenico) and frescoes at the Palazzo Comunale at Imola (1598; untraced). Thereafter he assisted Ludovico Carracci (1555-1619) and Guido Reni (1575-1642) in decorating the chapel of the Rosary in S. Domenico, Bologna (completed 1601). His final years were less productive (Turner, N.: From Michelangelo to Annibale Carracci. A century of Italian drawings from the Prado, Art Services International-Museo Nacional del Prado, 2008, p. 158).