Giovani Francesco Barbieri

This guy was a one-eyed barber’s son who painted angels like they were neighbors peeking over the garden fence. He started in a sleepy Italian town called Cento, where the local nuns kept commissioning holy scenes from the boy with the squint—until his colors got so bright they practically glowed in candlelight. If you’ve ever walked into a quiet church and felt the music before the choir starts, try his *St. Francis and St. Benedict Listening to a Musical Angel*; the gilt wings hum right off the canvas.