Sperindio Cagnoli was born at the end of the fifteenth century into a well-known family of painters from Novara who, under the guidance of their father Tommaso, enjoyed considerable success. Tommaso and his sons were among the painters called upon in 1490 to decorate the Sala della Balla in the Castello Sforzesco in Milan on the occasion of the wedding of Ludovico il Moro and Isabella d'Este. Cagnoli’s first independent work was the polyptych in the church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in Cerano, completed by November 1510. Here, Cagnoli’s work shows the influence of the previous generation of Lombard painters, first and foremost Bergognone, as well as the impact of the work of Guadenzio Ferrari, an artist with whom Cagnoli had a long and fruitful collaboration.
