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The sitter of this portrait is the poet Virginio Cesarini (1594-1624). His gaunt face is shown red-eyed from the consumption that would soon bring an end to his short life. He was one of the most interesting personalities in Rome towards the end of the 1610s, being close not only to Cardinal Maffeo Barberini but also to Galileo Galilei, who dedicated his ground-breaking volume Il Saggiatore to him in 1623.
Formerly this painting was thought to be Domenichino's self-portrait.
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