Cherubino Alberti

One of a family of artists from Borgo San Sepolcro (now San Sepolcro) in Tuscany, he was already active in Rome by c. 1570, where he trained with the Flemish printmaker Cornelis Cort (1533-1578), then settled there. In the 1570s, Cherubino's principal activity was as an engraver, working from designs after Raphael (1483-1520), Michelangelo (1475-1564), Polidoro da Car'avaggio (c. 1499-c. 1543) and the Zuccari. In the late 1580s, together with his two brothers Alessandro (1551-1596) and Giovanni (1558-1601), he collaborated on many fresco decorations in churches and palaces in Rome. Among his best-known frescoes carried out in collaboration with Giovanni and Baldassare Croce (c. 1558-1628), respectively, are the ceiling and wall decorations of the Sala Clementina in the Vatican (after 1589). In many of these joint decorative projects, feigned architectural settings are combined with daringly foreshortened figures. He was appointed "principe" of the Accademia di San Luca in 1613 (Turner, N.: From Michelangelo to Annibale Carracci. A century of Italian drawings from the Prado, Art Services International-Museo Nacional del Prado, 2008, p. 156).