Cavallucci's artistic talents were recognized by the Duke of Sermoneta, Francesco Caetani, who brought the 13 year old boy to Rome, where he became a pupil of Stefano Pozzi and, later, of Gaetano Lapis. He also studied drawing at the Accademia di San Luca. His earlier work dates from the mid-1760s but his first major commission was the decoration of five rooms in the Caetani Palace in Rome, in 1776. In the early 1780s he painted mostly portraits, including that of his patron Francesco Caetani. In 1786 he painted 'The Origin of Music', probably the most important painting of his mid-career. In subsequent years, new commissions kept coming under his new patron, Cardinal Romualdo Braschi-Onesti, nephew of the pope Pius VI. Cavallucci was inducted into the Accademia di San Luca in 1786, Academy of Arcadia in 1788, and the Congregazione dei Virtuosi al Pantheon in 1788.