Didier Barra (1590 - 1656) was a French

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

. Not much is known about Barra's life except through his works. He was born in

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand E ...

, but left for Italy in 1608. In

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 ...

he was very successful, especially for his cityscapes. He primarily painted scenes featuring decrepit ruins or near-barren buildings in a nearly-surrealist, apparently post-apocalyptic landscape. Until the mid-twentieth century Barra's works were believed to be by one "

Monsù Desiderio Monsù Desiderio is the name formerly given to an artist believed to have painted architectural scenes in a distinctive style in Naples in the early seventeenth century. The term ''monsù'', a corruption of the French ''monsieur'', was often use ...

". However the works formerly attributed to Desiderio have since been identified as the work of at least three artists: Barra,

François de Nomé ''Santi Severino e Sossio'' in Napoles François de Nomé (1593 – after 1620) was a French painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in Naples. Biography Born in Metz in the Lorraine region in 1593, de Nomé had moved to Rome by 1602 wh ...

, who was also from Metz, and a third, as yet unnamed painter. The similarities in both themes and style, and the fact that there were occasions where Barra and de Nomé collaborated, have made attributions challenging. One work executed by Barra ''Saint Standing in a Niche'' is part of the

Courtauld Gallery The Courtauld Gallery () is an art museum in Somerset House, on the Strand in central London. It houses the collection of the Courtauld Institute of Art, a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the hist ...

collection.Courtauld Gallery work by Didier Barra
/ref> He died in Naples in 1656.

References

1590 births 1656 deaths 17th-century Italian painters Italian male painters French Renaissance painters Artists from Metz {{France-painter-stub