b. 1620 Bologna, Italy, d. 1684 Bologna, Italy
draftsman; painter
Italian

Domenico Maria Canuti's contribution to Italian ceiling decoration was a hybrid of Bolognese and Roman influences. He first trained in Bologna under Guido Reni, then with Guercino, whose classical Baroque style remained an inspiration. From the early 1650s, Canuti worked in Rome, where he studied masterpieces by the Bolognese painter Annibale Carracci to learn the concepts of organizing large decorative schemes.

Canuti spent the 1660s in Bologna, where he applied these lessons in extensive fresco decorations in a major palazzo, achieving the illusion of vast aerial space amidst rhythmic areas of dark and light in a mythological apotheosis. After this success, Canuti returned to Rome in 1672 and completed his major Roman commission, a religious apotheosis. These decorations displayed his love of ornament and sensual profusion of fruits and flowers, which appealed more to Genoese than to Roman taste. Ironically, sketches for Canuti's projects demonstrate his habit of diverging from his original designs in his final paintings.

After again returning to Bologna, Canuti employed Giuseppe Maria Crespi in his flourishing studio.