He was born in Bologna, where he initially apprenticed with an unknown painter by the name of Spinelli, then the Mannerist painter Bartolomeo Passarotti, but also worked with Bartolomeo Cesi. In 1592, he joined the Carracci studio or the Academy of the Incamminati, and remained attached to Ludovico Carracci for many years. In 1604, he worked with Ludovico to fresco Stories of San Mauro, San Benedetto and others in the cloister of San Michele in Bosco. In 1607, he collaborates with Lionello Spada and Francesco Brizio in frescoes for the Palazzo Bonfioli, in Bologna. In 1610, he visits Rome, remains under the patronage of Cardinal Facchinetti, and befriends Domenichino. In 1612, he completes the frescoes left unfinished by Bernardino Poccetti in a chapel of the Certosa di Galluzzo, near Florence. He painted the main altarpiece for the church of Santa Maria in Guadi in San Giovanni in Persiceto. He returns to Bologna in 1614, and soon travels with Francesco Albani to work in Mantua. He is said to have spent so much time in hunting, fishing, and the delights of the countryside, that he neglected painting. Though his biography shows him to be exceedingly prolific in altarpieces. Among his pupils was Sebastiano Brunetti, Antonio Randa, and Fra Bonaventura Bisi.
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