Giulio Cesare Procaccini (1574–1625) was a leading figure of the early Baroque in Lombardy, celebrated for bringing theatrical emotion and sculptural power to sacred painting. Born in Bologna into a family of artists, he moved to Milan young and first trained as a sculptor—an origin that shaped his later painting with weighty bodies, dramatic gestures, and richly modeled forms. As he shifted decisively into painting around the turn of the 17th century, Procaccini absorbed influences from Parma’s graceful dynamism and the luminous sensuality of northern Italian art, fusing them into a distinctive Milanese language of devotion and intensity. He became central to the city’s artistic life, working for major churches and contributing to high-profile programs connected to Milan’s spiritual identity, including cycles celebrating Saint Charles Borromeo. Alongside contemporaries such as Il Cerano and Il Morazzone, Procaccini helped define a local Baroque style designed to persuade the heart as much as the eye—images that feel immediate, compassionate, and vividly alive. His legacy endures as one of Milan’s most expressive masters of sacred drama.