"[His] manner . . . was powerful, extravagant and altogether beautiful; he need not have envied even the greatest master," wrote Baciccio's biographer. Early contact in Genoa, Italy, with works by Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck influenced Baciccio deeply, as did Genoese painter Bernardo Strozzi's broad, painterly manner and warm palette. After the plague killed his family in 1657, Baciccio
