Sigismondo Caula was born at Modena

Modena

Modena is a city and comune on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy....

 in 1637. He was the pupil of Jean Boulanger

Jean Boulanger

Jean Boulanger was a French artist active in Italy during the Baroque period. One of his more famous works are the frescoes at the Ducal palace of Sassuolo. His pupils include Tommaso Costa at Modena....

, but finished his studies at Venice, from the works of Titian

Titian

Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio (c. 1488/1490 – 27 August 1576 better known as Titian was an Italian painter, the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near...

 and Tintoretto

Tintoretto

Tintoretto , real name Jacopo Comin, was a Venetian painter and a notable exponent of the Renaissance school. For his phenomenal energy in painting he was termed Il Furioso...

. Besides his altar-pieces

Altarpiece

An altarpiece is a picture or relief representing a religious subject and suspended in a frame behind the altar of a church. The altarpiece is often made up of two or more separate panels created using a technique known as panel painting. It is then called a diptych, triptych or polyptych for two,...

, he painted cabinet pictures

Cabinet painting

A cabinet painting is a small painting, typically no larger than about two feet in either dimension, but often much smaller. The term is especially used of paintings that show full-length figures at a small scale, as opposed to say a head painted nearly life-size, and that are painted very...

 for private collections. His best production was his large picture of 'St. Charles Borromeo assisting the plague-stricken people of Modena,' which was painted, with great vigour and expression, for the church of San Carlo.
It is now in the Este Gallery

Galleria Estense

The Galleria Estense or Estense Gallery is an art museum in Modena, with mainly Italian and Spanish paintings from the 14th to the 18th century, formed around the collection of the House of Este, rulers of Modena . It is located on the upper floor of the Palazzo dei Musei, on the St. Augustine...

at Modena, which also possesses a figure of 'St. Ambrose' by him. In the latter portion of his life he became more languid in his coloring and execution. He painted as late as 1694.