Active in: Italy
Alternate names: Theodora Caccia

Biography

The daughter of the painter Guglielmo Caccia, called il Moncalvo, (1568–1625) and Laura Olivia, herself the daughter of a painter, Orsola Maddalena Caccia was born in Moncalvo in 1596 and baptized Theodora Orsola on December 4 of that year. In 1620, she entered the Ursuline convent in Bianzé in 1620, where she took the name Orsola Maddalena. She was one of six Caccia sisters who joined the convent. When political and military unrest threatened the convent in Bianzé, her father received permission to establish an Ursuline convent in their hometown of Moncalvo in 1625.

Guglielmo Caccia died soon after her daughters returned to Moncalvo and in 1626, Caccia inherited all of the materials from his atelier, opened a workshop, and began to take on students and assistants. She took on public and private commissions to generate financial support for the convent. Although she primarily made religious genre scenes and altarpieces, she is credited with producing some of the earliest still life paintings in Northern Italy and she often included still life elements within her religious paintings. Her floral floral still-life paintings represent a striking fusion of careful botanical observation, strict symmetry and sacred symbolism. Several are now held by the Museo Civico di Moncalvo and each demonstrates a careful balance of devotional with decorative functions. They were most likely painted for personal use and sold or given to private clients.

Later in life, Caccia became the abbess of the convent. She outlived all of her sisters and continued to paint until at least 1665. When she died in 1676, she left behind a body of work that included altarpieces, devotional panels, and processional banners, produced for churches throughout the Piedmont region. While these commissions supported the convent financially, in 1643 she wrote to Madame Royale, Christine of France (1606 – 1663), wife of Vittorio Amadeo, I, Duke of Savoy (1587-1637) in Turin, explaining that her convent was poverty stricken and asking for an opportunity to be paid for work. Caccia did not achieve fame during her lifetime but her name was known in the late eighteenth century, when the Jesuit priest Luigi Lanzi (1732–1810) mentioned her in a 1796 survey of Italian painting. He described her artistic achievements as comparable to those of her near-contemporaries, Lavinia Fontana (1552–1614) and Artemisia Gentileschi (1593–1656).

Selected Works