Carlo Sellitto (1581 – 2 October 1614 in Naples) was an Italian painter of the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

period. One of the most gifted followers of Michelangelo Merisi da

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi (Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi) da Caravaggio, known as simply Caravaggio (, , ; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the final four years of hi ...

(1571–1610), Sellitto played an important role in the spread of Caravaggism to

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

and in the development away from Late

Mannerism Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, ...

to a greater naturalism. The son of a painter and gilder, he was apprenticed briefly to the Piedmontese painter Giovanni Antonio Ardito (c. late 16th century–early 17th) before moving (c. 1591) to the studio of the Flemish painter Louis Croys. By 1608, at the age of 27 years, he had left Croys and had set up his own workshop in the Via Donnalbina, attracting to it such artists as

Filippo Napoletano Filippo Napoletano, whose real name was Filippo Teodoro di Liagno (or Teodoro Filippo de Liagno) (c. 1587-89 – November 1629) was an Italian artist, with a varied output, mainly landscape and genre scenes and also drawings or etchings of di ...

, Giovan Mattea Arciero (b 1591) and

Francesco Abbenante Francesco, the Italian (and original) version of the personal name "Francis", is the most common given name among males in Italy. Notable persons with that name include: People with the given name Francesco * Francesco I (disambiguation), sever ...

(first decade of the 17th century). The talent for portraiture that Sellitto had shown while working with Croys brought him commissions from the court and aristocracy, although none of these documented works has been identified. Sellitto would have known Caravaggio during the artist's exile in Naples in 1606/1607, but the date indicates that this ''Baptist'' (illustrated) was painted several years previously - cf. Caravaggio's own treatment of the theme of ''

John the Baptist John the Baptist or , , or , ;Wetterau, Bruce. ''World history''. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1994. syc, ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕ݂ܵܢܵܐ, Yoḥanān Maʿmḏānā; he, יוחנן המטביל, Yohanān HaMatbil; la, Ioannes Bapti ...

''. He died on 2 October 1614 after a brief 6-year independent career.

External links

* *Paintings by Sellitto a
''Montemurro Sul Web''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sellitto, Carlo 1581 births 1614 deaths Italian Baroque painters 16th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 17th-century Italian painters Painters from Naples Caravaggisti