Mattia Preti (24 February 1613 – 3 January 1699) was an Italian

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 ...

artist who worked in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

and

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

. He was appointed a Member of the

Order of Saint John The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headq ...

Life

Born in the small town of

Taverna A taverna (Greek: ταβέρνα) is a small Greek restaurant that serves Greek cuisine. The taverna is an integral part of Greek culture and has become familiar to people from other countries who visit Greece, as well as through the establishmen ...

Calabria , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

, Preti was called ''Il Cavalier Calabrese'' (the Calabrian Knight) after appointment as a Knight of the Order of St. John (Knights of Malta) in 1660. His early apprenticeship is said to have been with the " Caravaggist"

Giovanni Battista Caracciolo Giovanni Battista Caracciolo (also called Battistello) (1578–1635) was an Italian artist and important Neapolitan follower of Caravaggio. He was a member of the murderous Cabal of Naples, with Belisario Corenzio and Giambattista Caracciolo ...

, which may account for his lifelong interest in the style of

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 ...

. Probably before 1630, Preti joined his brother Gregorio (also a painter), in Rome, where he became familiar with the techniques of Caravaggio and his school as well as with the work of

Guercino Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (February 8, 1591 – December 22, 1666),Miller, 1964 better known as Guercino, or il Guercino , was an Italian Baroque painter and draftsman from Cento in the Emilia region, who was active in Rome and Bologna. The vig ...

Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque traditio ...

Guido Reni Guido Reni (; 4 November 1575 – 18 August 1642) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, although his works showed a classical manner, similar to Simon Vouet, Nicolas Poussin, and Philippe de Champaigne. He painted primarily religious ...

, and

Giovanni Lanfranco Giovanni Lanfranco (26 January 1582 – 30 November 1647) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period. Biography Giovanni Gaspare Lanfranco was born in Parma, the third son of Stefano and Cornelia Lanfranchi, and was placed as a page in the ho ...

. In Rome, he painted fresco cycles in the churches of

Sant'Andrea della Valle Sant'Andrea della Valle is a minor basilica in the rione of Sant'Eustachio of the city of Rome, Italy. The basilica is the general seat for the religious order of the Theatines. It is located at Piazza Vidoni, at the intersection of Corso Vittori ...

and

San Carlo ai Catinari San Carlo ai Catinari, also called Santi Biagio e Carlo ai Catinari ("Saints Blaise and Charles at the Bowl-Makers") is an early-Baroque style church in Rome, Italy. It is located on Piazza Benedetto Cairoli, 117 just off the corner of Via Arenul ...

. Between 1644 and 1646, he may have spent time in Venice, but remained based in Rome until 1653, returning later in 1660–61. He painted frescoes for the church of San Biagio at Modena (app. 1651–2) and participated in the fresco decoration of the

Palazzo Pamphilj :''See also Palazzo Doria Pamphilj Palazzo Pamphilj, also spelled Palazzo Pamphili, is a palace facing onto the Piazza Navona in Rome, Italy. It was built between 1644 and 1650. Since 1920, the palace has housed the Brazilian Embassy in Italy. I ...

Valmontone Valmontone is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Rome in the Italian region Lazio, located about southeast of Rome. Geography The historic part of the town is situated on a tuffaceous hill, above sea level, part of a mor ...

(documented 1660–61), where he worked along with

Pier Francesco Mola Pier Francesco Mola, called Il Ticinese (9 February 1612 – 13 May 1666) was an Italian painter of the High Baroque, mainly active around Rome. Biography Mola was born at Coldrerio (now in Ticino, Switzerland).''Ecstasy in the Wilderness: Pier ...

Gaspar Dughet Gaspard Dughet (15 June 1615 – 25 May 1675), also known as Gaspard Poussin, was a French painter born in Rome. Life Dughet was born in Rome, the son of a French pastry-cook and his Italian wife. He has always generally been considered as a F ...

, Francesco Cozza,

Giovanni Battista Tassi Giovanni may refer to: * Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname * Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data * ''Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend of ...

(''il Cortonese''), and

Guglielmo Cortese Guillaume Courtois or italianized as Guglielmo Cortese, called Il Borgognone or Le Bourguignon ('the Burgundian'), (1628 – 14 or 15 June 1679 Saint Nicholas Saint Nicholas of Myra, ; la, Sanctus Nicolaus (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greeks, Greek descent from the maritime city of Myra in Asia Minor (; modern-da ...

''. There he was influenced by another prominent painter of his era,

Luca Giordano Luca Giordano (18 October 1634 – 3 January 1705) was an Italian late-Baroque painter and printmaker in etching. Fluent and decorative, he worked successfully in Naples and Rome, Florence, and Venice, before spending a decade in Spain. Ear ...

. Preti's major works include a series of large fresco

ex-voto An ex-voto is a votive offering to a saint or to a divinity; the term is usually restricted to Christian examples. It is given in fulfillment of a vow (hence the Latin term, short for ''ex voto suscepto'', "from the vow made") or in gratitude o ...

s depicting the Virgin or saints delivering people from the plague, which were painted on seven city gates and are now lost - two sketches for them are in the

Capodimonte Museum Museo di Capodimonte is an art museum located in the Palace of Capodimonte, a grand House of Bourbon, Bourbon palazzo in Naples, Italy. The museum is the prime repository of Neapolitan painting and decorative art, with several important works ...

in Naples, including a ''bozzetto'' of the Virgin with the baby Jesus looming over the dying and their burial parties which envisions a

Last Judgement The Last Judgment, Final Judgment, Day of Reckoning, Day of Judgment, Judgment Day, Doomsday, Day of Resurrection or The Day of the Lord (; ar, یوم القيامة, translit=Yawm al-Qiyāmah or ar, یوم الدین, translit=Yawm ad-Dīn, ...

presided over by a woman. Preti also won a commission to supervise the construction, carving, and gilding for the nave and transept of San Pietro a Maiella, along with producing a '' Judith and Holofernes'' and ''

Saint 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 ...

'', both still in Naples. Having been made a Knight of Grace in the Order of St John, he visited the order's headquarters in

in 1659 and spent most of the remainder of his life there. Preti transformed the interior of St. John's Co-Cathedral in

Valletta Valletta (, mt, il-Belt Valletta, ) is an Local councils of Malta, administrative unit and capital city, capital of Malta. Located on the Malta (island), main island, between Marsamxett Harbour to the west and the Grand Harbour to the east, i ...

with a huge series of paintings on the life and martyrdom of St. John the Baptist (1661–1666). In Malta one also can find many paintings of Preti in private collections and in parish churches. His increased reputation led to an expanded circle of patrons, and he received commissions from all over Europe. Preti was fortunate to enjoy a long career and have a considerable artistic output. His paintings, representative of the exuberant late Baroque style, are held by many great museums, including important collections 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 ...

, and in his hometown of

Taverna, Calabria Taverna is a ''comune'' and town in the province of Catanzaro in the Calabria region of Italy. It is located at the feet of the Sila mountains, Sila mountain range. People * Mattia Preti, 17th-century Baroque painter * Gregorio Preti, 17th-centur ...

Gallery

File:Preti - sant'antonio abate.jpg, ''

Sant'Antonio Abate Sant'Antonio Abate ( nap, Sant'Antuono) is a ''commune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Naples in the Italian region Campania, located about 30 km southeast of Naples. Sant'Antonio Abate borders the following municipalities: A ...

'' c.1628, 62 x 62 cm, private collection File:Mattia Preti - Concert - WGA18386.jpg, ''The Concert'' c.1630,

Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is the list of ...

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

File:Accademia - Homer by Mattia Preti.jpg, ''Homer'' c.1635, 102 x 81 cm,

Gallerie dell'Accademia The Gallerie dell'Accademia is a museum gallery of pre-19th-century art in Venice, northern Italy. It is housed in the Scuola della Carità on the south bank of the Grand Canal, within the sestiere of Dorsoduro. It was originally the gallery o ...

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

File:The Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew.jpg, ''The Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew'' c.1650, Basilica of St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral File:Preti, Mattia - Wedding at Cana - c. 1655.jpg, ''The Marriage at Cana'' c.1655-1660,

National Gallery, London The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...

File:Mattia Preti, Pilato si lava le mani, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.jpg, ''Pilate Washing His Hands'', c. 1663,

The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 F ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

File:Mattia Preti 002.jpg, ''Calling the Apostle Matthew'' c. 1630-1640, 104 x 164 cm,

Kunsthistorisches Museum The Kunsthistorisches Museum ( "Museum of Art History", often referred to as the "Museum of Fine Arts") is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on the Vienna Ring Road, it is crowned with an octagonal do ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

File:Mattia Preti 003.jpg, ''Unbelieving Thomas'', c. 1656-1660, 187 x 145 cm,

File:Cristo en gloria con santos (Mattia Preti).jpg, ''Christ in Glory with Saints'', 1660-1661,

Museo del Prado The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the ...

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

File:Mattia Preti, Tomiri immerge la testa di Ciro in un otre di sangue, Louvre.jpg, ''Tomiri immerses Ciro's head in a skin bag of blood'', 1685-89, 174 x 213,

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

File:La Mort de Sophonisbe - Mattia Preti.jpg, '' The Death of Sophonisba'' c.1660-1670, 198 x 174 cm,

Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon The Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon (french: Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon) is a municipal museum of fine arts in the French city of Lyon. Located near the Place des Terreaux, it is housed in a former Benedictine convent which was active during the 1 ...

File:4DPict.jpg, ''The Vanity'', 1650-1651, 93,5 x 65 cm,

Uffizi The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums ...

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

File:Mattia Preti 004.jpg, ''A Mother Entrusting Her Sons to Christ'' c. 1635-36, 143 x 193 cm,

Pinacoteca di Brera The Pinacoteca di Brera ("Brera Art Gallery") is the main public gallery for paintings in Milan, Italy. It contains one of the foremost collections of Italian paintings from the 13th to the 20th century, an outgrowth of the cultural program of ...

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

File:La cena del ricco Epulone - M. Preti.jpg, ''

The Banquet of the Rich Glutton ''The Banquet of a Rich Glutton'' is an oil on canvas painting by the Italian Baroque art, Baroque painter Mattia Preti, executed ''c.'' 1665. It is housed in the Pinacoteca of the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica (Palazzo Barberini), in Rome. De ...

'' c.1665, 148 x 200 cm, Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica, Rome File:Mattia Preti - Diogenes and Plato - Google Art Project.jpg, '' Plato and Diogenes'' c.1688, 101 x 151 cm,

Capitoline Museums The Capitoline Museums (Italian: ''Musei Capitolini'') are a group of art and archaeological museums in Piazza del Campidoglio, on top of the Capitoline Hill in Rome, Italy. The historic seats of the museums are Palazzo dei Conservatori and Pala ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

File:Matti Preti, Liberazione di San Pietro, Dresda, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister.jpg, ''The Deliverance of St. Peter from Prison'', c. 1650, 205 x 226 cm,

Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister The Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (, ''Old Masters Gallery'') in Dresden, Germany, displays around 750 paintings from the 15th to the 18th centuries. It includes major Italian Renaissance works as well as Dutch and Flemish paintings. Outstand ...

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

File:Mattia Preti - St. George on Horseback - WGA18397.jpg, ''

Saint George on Horseback ''Saint George on Horseback'' is an oil painting by Mattia Preti painted in 1658. It is the altarpiece of the Chapel of the Langue of Aragon in St. John's Co-Cathedral, Valletta, Malta. The painting was Preti's first work in Malta, and it is rega ...

'' 1658, 275 x 207 cm, St. John's Co-Cathedral File:St John the Baptist Wearing the Red Tabard of the Order of St John - Mattia Preti.jpg, ''

St John the Baptist Wearing the Red Tabard of the Order of St John ''St John the Baptist Wearing the Red Tabard of the Order of St John'' is an oil on canvas painting by Italian painter Mattia Preti, from 1671. The painting has the dimensions of 98 x 78 centimeters. It is in the collection of MUŻA in Valletta, M ...

'' 1671, 98 x 78 cm,

National Museum of Fine Arts, Malta National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

File:Saint Veronica with the Veil LACMA M.84.20 (1 of 2).jpg, ''Saint Veronica with the Veil'', 1655-1660, 100 x 74 cm,

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Pa ...

File:Mattia Preti - Saint Paul the Hermit - 1969.109 - Cleveland Museum of Art.tiff, ''Saint Paul the Hermit'', c. 1662-1664, 103 x 76 cm,

Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian ...

File:Mattia Preti - San Giovanni Battista Predicazione.jpg, ''St. John the Baptist Preaching'', c. 1665,

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), comprising the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, is the largest public arts institution in the city of San Francisco. The permanent collection of the ...

File:Mattia Preti - Adorazione dei pastori, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.jpg, ''Adoration of the shepherds'', c. 1678,

Walker Art Gallery The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England outside London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group. History of the Gallery The Walker Art Gallery's collection ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

File:Giuditta e Oloferne - Mattia Preti.jpg, ''Judith and Holofernes'', c. 1653-1654, 186 x 143 cm,

Museo di Capodimonte Museo di Capodimonte is an art museum located in the Palace of Capodimonte, a grand Bourbon palazzo in Naples, Italy. The museum is the prime repository of Neapolitan painting and decorative art, with several important works from other Italia ...

File:Mattia Preti - Baldassarre's Feast - WGA18380.jpg, ''Baldassarre's Feast'', 1653-1659, 202 x 297 cm,

File:I quattro evangelisti - Mattia Preti.jpg, ''The four Evangelists'', 1650, 153 x 207 cm,

Palazzo Abatellis Palazzo Abatellis (also known as Palazzo Patella) is a palazzo in Palermo, Sicily, southern Italy, located in the Kalsa quarter. It is home to the Galleria Regionale della Sicilia, the Gallery of Art for the Sicilian region. History The pala ...

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

File:Cristo e l'adultera - Mattia Preti.jpg, ''Christ and the adulteress'', 1650, 85 x 117 cm,

File:Basilica di Sant'Andrea della Valle 23.jpg, ''Martyrdom of Saint Andrew'', 1650-1651,

File:Preti-figliuolProdigo.jpg, ''Return of the Prodigal Son'', 1658, 202 x 285 cm,

Royal Palace of Naples The Royal Palace of Naples ( it, Palazzo Reale di Napoli, italic=no, nap, Palazzo Riale ‘e Napule) is a palace, museum, and historical tourist destination located in central Naples, southern Italy. It was one of the four residences near Napl ...

File:Mattia Preti 007.jpg, ''Aeneas, Anchises and Ascanius Fleeing Troy'', 1630, 86 x 153 cm, Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica, Rome File:St Sebastian c1660 Mattia Preti.jpg, ''

Saint Sebastian Saint Sebastian (in Latin: ''Sebastianus''; Narbo, Gallia Narbonensis, Roman Empire c. AD 255 – Rome, Italia, Roman Empire c. AD 288) was an early Christian saint and martyr. According to traditional belief, he was killed during the Dioclet ...

'', 1660, 240 x 169 cm,

File:Preti Adoration of the Shepherds.jpg, ''Adoration of the Shepherds'', 1645, 148 x 197 cm,

National Museum, Warsaw The National Museum in Warsaw ( pl, Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie), popularly abbreviated as MNW, is a national museum in Warsaw, one of the largest museums in Poland and the largest in the capital. It comprises a rich collection of ancient art ( Eg ...

File:Martirio di santa Caterina - M. Preti.jpg, ''Martyrdom of Saint Catherine'', 1659, 365 x 267 cm, Church of Saint Catherine of Italy, Valletta,

File:Mattia Preti, Belisario riceve l' elemosina, Museo Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam.jpg, ''Belisarius receiving alms'', 1665-1669, 152 x 198 cm,

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Municipal Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen () is an art museum in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The name of the museum is derived from the two most important collectors of Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans and Daniël George van Beuningen. It is located at ...

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Preti, Mattia 1613 births 1699 deaths People from the Province of Catanzaro 17th-century Italian painters Italian male painters Italian Baroque painters Knights of Malta Caravaggisti Catholic painters

Life

Gallery

References

Further reading

External links