He studied in Florence under Girolamo Macchietti (1535-1592) and Giovanni Battista Naldini (c. 1537-1591), but his principal master was Federico Zuccaro (1540/41-1609), whit whom he worked from 1575 to 1579 on the fresco decoration of the cupola of Florence Cathedral, left incomplete at Vasari’s death. Following periods of activity in Rome (1580-1582) and Venice (1582-1588), Passignano returned to Florence in 1588, where he painted the frescoes in the Capella di S. Antonino or Salviati in San Marco, representing scenes from the life of St. Antoninus. From that onwards, he was regularly commissioned to paint altarpieces for the more important churches in the city. He returned to Rome in 1602 to paint on the commission of Pope Clement VII the Crucifixion of St. Peter; one of the altarpieces for the old basilica of St Peter's; and, in 1604, Cardinal Maffeo Barberini employed him to carry out decorations representing scenes from the Life of the Virgin in the Barberini family chapel in S. Andrea della Valle, Rome. During this period he was employed in the decoration of villas belonging to influential statesmen and cardinals of the day, in Rome and Frascati. His knowledge of the work of the more important contemporary painters, such as Annibale Carracci (1560-1609) and Caravaggio (1571-1610), is reflected in his output from the first decade of the seventeenth century. In the years of Passignano maturity which he spent in Florence, he contributed Michelangelo Presenting the Model of St. Peter’s to Pope Pius IV to the decoration of the upstairs room dedicated to the glory of Michelangelo in the Casa Buonarroti (1618-1619) (Turner, N.: From Michelangelo to Annibale Carracci. A century of Italian drawings from the Prado, Art Services International-Museo Nacional del Prado, 2008, p. 170).