Monsù Desiderio is the name formerly given to an artist believed to have painted architectural scenes in a distinctive style in

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

in the early seventeenth century. The term ''monsù'', a corruption of the French ''monsieur'', was often used by Neapolitan historians to denote a painter of foreign origin. In the mid-twentieth century, art historians identified the works previously attributed to "Desiderio" as being by at least three different painters:

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 w ...

and

Didier Barra Didier Barra (1590 - 1656) was a French Renaissance painter. Not much is known about Barra's life except through his works. He was born in Metz, but left for Italy in 1608. In Naples he was very successful, especially for his cityscapes. He pri ...

, both originally from

Metz Metz ( , , , then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle (river), Moselle and the Seille (Moselle), Seille rivers. Metz is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Moselle (department), Moselle Departments ...

, and a third artist, whose name is unknown. Nomé's works were described by

Rudolf Wittkower Rudolf Wittkower (22 June 1901 – 11 October 1971) was a British art historian specializing in Italian Renaissance and Baroque art and architecture, who spent much of his career in London, but was educated in Germany, and later moved to the Unit ...

as "bizarre and ghostlike paintings of architecture, often crumbling and fantastic".

References

French Baroque painters Italian Baroque painters {{Italy-artist-stub