(b Sassoferrato, 25 Aug 1609; d Rome, 8 Aug 1685). Italian painter and draughtsman. He served his apprenticeship under his father, Tarquinio Salvi. Tradition has it that he later (it is not known exactly when) studied with Domenichino in Naples, where he certainly had the opportunity of meeting Francesco Cozza and where he painted the Adoration of the Shepherds (Naples, Capodimonte). As a young man, Sassoferrato probably travelled often in the areas bordering on the Marches, for example in Umbria and particularly Perugia, where from 1630 he was connected with the Benedictine convent of S Pietro, for which he painted canvases of ten saints for the ceiling of the sacristy of the convent church (in situ). By July 1641 he was in Rome, where a commission to fresco the sacristy of S Francesco di Paolo, originally given to Cozza, was transferred to him.

See the Abbreviations for further details.

The Concise Grove Dictionary of Art. Copyright © 2002 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved.