Giovanni Battista Caracciolo (also called Battistello) (1578–1635) was an Italian artist and important

Neapolitan Neapolitan means of or pertaining to Naples, a city in Italy; or to: Geography and history * Province of Naples, a province in the Campania region of southern Italy that includes the city * Duchy of Naples, in existence during the Early and Hig ...

follower 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 h ...

. He was a member of the murderous

Cabal of Naples The Cabal of Naples was a notorious triumvirate of painters in the city of Naples that operated during the early Baroque period from the late 1610s to the early 1640s. It was led by the Spaniard Jusepe de Ribera, who had established himself in Na ...

, with

Belisario Corenzio Belisario Corenzio ( el, Βελισσάριος Κορένσιος 1558–1646) was a Greek-Italian painter, active in Venice and Naples. He is one of few Greek painters that did not belong to the Cretan Renaissance like his contemporaries of the ...

and Giambattista Caracciolo, who were rumoured to have poisoned and disappeared their competition for painting contracts.

Early life

The only substantial early source of biography is that of

Bernardo de' Dominici Bernardo de' Dominici or Bernardo De Dominici (13 December 1683 – c. 1759) was an Italian art historian and painter of the late-Baroque period, active mainly in Naples. As a painter he was known for his landscapes, marine vedute and genre scene ...

's unreliable publication of 1742. De Dominici's statements are often contradicted by documented facts and others cannot be substantiated independently. Archival documents state Caracciolo was born 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 adm ...

and baptised on 7 December 1578, as the son of Cesare Caracciolo and his wife Elena. The family lived in the parish of San Giovanni Maggiore. On 3 August 1598, at the age of twenty, Caracciolo married Beatrice de Mario. They had ten children, of whom eight survived to adulthood.

Caravaggesque phase

His initial training was said to be with Francesco Imparato and

Fabrizio Santafede Fabrizio Santafede or Fabrizio Santaféde (c. 1560–1623/28) was an Italian painter known for his altarpieces. He painted in a style that rejected the Mannerism popular in the Naples of his time and evident in the works of Francesco Curia. Life ...

, but the first impulse that directed his art came from Caravaggio's sudden presence in Naples in late 1606. Caravaggio had fled there after killing a man in a brawl in

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 ...

, and he arrived at the end of September or beginning of October 1606. His stay in the city lasted only about eight months, with another brief visit in 1609/1610, yet his impact on artistic life there was profound. Caracciolo, only five years younger than Caravaggio, was among the first there to adopt the startling new style with its sombre palette, dramatic

tenebrism Tenebrism, from Italian ' ("dark, gloomy, mysterious"), also occasionally called dramatic illumination, is a style of painting using especially pronounced chiaroscuro, where there are violent contrasts of light and dark, and where darkness becom ...

, and sculptural figures in a shallow picture plane defined by light rather than by perspective. He is considered to be the solitary founder of the Neapolitan school of Caravaggism. Among the other Neapolitan

Caravaggisti The Caravaggisti (or the "Caravagesques") were stylistic followers of the late 16th-century Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio. His influence on the new Baroque style that eventually emerged from Mannerism was profound. Caravaggio never establish ...

were

Giuseppe Ribera Jusepe de Ribera (1591 – 1652) was a painter and printmaker, who along with Francisco de Zurbarán, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, and the singular Diego Velázquez, are regarded as the major artists of Spanish Baroque painting. Referring ...

Carlo Sellitto Carlo Sellitto (1581 – 2 October 1614 in Naples) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period. One of the most gifted followers of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610), Sellitto played an important role in the spread of Caravaggism ...

Artemisia Gentileschi Artemisia Lomi or Artemisia Gentileschi (, ; 8 July 1593) was an Italian Baroque painter. Gentileschi is considered among the most accomplished seventeenth-century artists, initially working in the style of Caravaggio. She was producing profess ...

, and Caracciolo's pupil, Mattia Preti, then early in his career. Caracciolo's Caravaggesque phase was fundamental to his entire career. His first contact with Caravaggio must have been around the time of the Radolovich commission, dated 6 October 1606, and the contacts continued through Caravaggio's completion of the ''

Seven Works of Mercy Works of mercy (sometimes known as acts of mercy) are practices considered meritorious in Christian ethics. The practice is popular in the Catholic Church as an act of both penance and charity. In addition, the Methodist church teaches that th ...

'' during the last months of that year and early 1607. A notable result of Caravaggio's influence is Caracciolo's ''The Crucifixion of Christ'', with its strong echoes of the '' Crucifixion of Saint Andrew''. In 1607, he painted the ''Immaculate Conception'' for the

Santa Maria della Stella Santa Maria della Stella is a church located on Via Stella 25 in the quartiere of its name in Naples, Italy. History The church was built in 1571, to host an icon of the Virgin, previously held in an aedicule near Porta San Gennaro. The Minims r ...

in Naples. It is considered to be his first documented Caravaggesque painting. In 1612, he made a trip to Rome. A work showing the influence of this visit, and especially that of

Orazio Gentileschi Orazio Lomi Gentileschi (1563–1639) was an Italian painter. Born in Tuscany, he began his career in Rome, painting in a Mannerist style, much of his work consisting of painting the figures within the decorative schemes of other artists. After ...

, is the ''Liberation of Saint Peter'' (1615), painted for the

Pio Monte della Misericordia The Pio Monte della Misericordia is a church in the historic center of Naples, southern Italy. It is famous for its art works, including Caravaggio's ''The Seven Works of Mercy''. A charity brotherhood (''Pio Monte della Misericordia'' meaning ...

, to hang next to Caravaggio's '' Seven Works of Mercy'' painted for the same church. By this time he had become the leader of the new Neapolitan school, dividing his time between religious subjects (altarpieces and, unusually for a Caravaggist, frescos) and paintings for private patrons. After 1618 he visited

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...

, Rome and

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 ...

. In Rome he came under the influence of the revived

Classicism Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aesthet ...

of the

Carracci The Carracci were a family of Italian artists. Notable members include: * Agostino Carracci (1557–1602), Italian painter and printmaker * Annibale Carracci (1560–1609), Italian Baroque painter and brother of Agostino Carracci * Ludovico Carracc ...

cousins and the Emilian school, and began working towards a synthesis of their style with his own

– his ''Cupid'', with its bravura handling of the red cloth, shows the influence of the Carracci synthesis. Back in Naples, he translated this into grandiose, wide-ranging scenes frescos including his masterpiece ''Christ Washing the Feet of the Disciples'' of 1622, painted for the

Certosa di San Martino The (" Charterhouse of St. Martin") is a former monastery complex, now a museum, in Naples, southern Italy. Along with Castel Sant'Elmo that stands beside it, this is the most visible landmark of the city, perched atop the Vomero hill that comman ...

. He also painted further works in the Certosa di San Martino,

Santa Maria La Nova Santa Maria la Nova is a Renaissance architecture, Renaissance style, now-deconsecrated, Roman Catholic church and monastery in central Naples. The church is located at the beginning of a side street directly across from the east side of the ma ...

and San Diego all'Ospedaletto and these works of the late second decade of the 17th century onward, show the strong influence of Bolognese classicism he might have been exposed to in Rome. He died in Naples, in the few days between creating his last will, on 19 December 1635, and 24 December 1635, when it was opened and read.

Gallery

File:Immaculate Conception with Saints Dominic and Francis of Paola.jpg, ''Immaculate Conception with Saints Dominic and Francis of Paola'', (1607) File:BattistelloSalome.jpg, ''Salome''.

Uffizi Gallery 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 muse ...

. The painting illustrates Battistello's mastery of the visual language of Caravaggio. File:Battistello Martirio de San Sebastián Fogg Art Museum.jpg, ''Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian'' (

Fogg Art Museum The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...

) File:BATTISTELLO CARACCIOLO.jpg, ''Joseph and Potiphar's wife'' (1618) File:Battistello Caracciolo Tobias und der Engel.jpg, ''Tobias and the Angel'' (1635) File:Battistello Caracciolo - Christ and Caiaphas - WGA04065.jpg, ''Christ and

Caiaphas Joseph ben Caiaphas (; c. 14 BC – c. 46 AD), known simply as Caiaphas (; grc-x-koine, Καϊάφας, Kaïáphas ) in the New Testament, was the Jewish high priest who, according to the gospels, organized a plot to kill Jesus. He famous ...

'' File:Oratorio dei Nobili - Battistello Caracciolo.jpg, Nativity in the Oratory of the Nobles File:Battistello Caracciolo, Vergine che accoglie sotto il manto Santi carmelitani, quattro Sante e Storie dell'Ordine.jpg, Virgin welcomes the Carmelites File:Battistello,_madonna_delle_anime_purganti_tra_i_ss._francesco_e_chiara,_1625_ca.,_da_s._chiara_a_nola.JPG, ''

Madonna of the Souls in Purgatory ''Madonna of the Souls in Purgatory'' is a 1622-1625 oil on canvas painting by Battistello Caracciolo, originally in the church of Santa Chiara in Nola but was moved out of the church after its roof collapsed in the 1980 Irpinia earthquake and in ...

'' (Capodimonte)

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * *Ferdinando Bologna (Herausgeber) ''Battistello Caracciolo e il primo naturalismo a Napoli, Ausstellungskatalog Castel San Elmo, Chiesa della Certosa di San Martino, 1991/92 * Stefano Causa ''Battistello Caracciolo: L'Opera Completa 1578–1635'', Neapel 2000 (Causa promovierte über Battistello an der Universität Neapel: Ricerche su Battistello Caracciolo 1994/95) * Nicola Spinosa u.a. ''Tres Siglos de Oro de la Pintura Napolitana. De Battistello Caracciolo a Giacinto Gigante'', Ausstellungskatalog, Museum der Schönen Künste Valencia 2003/4, Ed. Caja Duero, 2003

External links

''Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi''
a fully digitized exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries, which contains material on Battistello Caracciolo (see index) {{DEFAULTSORT:Caracciolo, Battistello 1578 births 1635 deaths 16th-century Neapolitan people 16th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 17th-century Italian painters Painters from Naples Italian Baroque painters Battistello 17th-century Neapolitan people Caravaggisti Catholic painters