Giovanni Battista Caracciolo (also called Battistello) (1578–1635) was an
Italian artist and important
Neapolitan follower of
Caravaggio
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (also Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi da Caravaggio; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), known mononymously as Caravaggio, was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the fina ...
. He was a member of the murderous
Cabal of Naples, with
Belisario Corenzio 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'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 ( ; ; ) 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 ...
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, 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
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
, 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 leading to his 1610–1615 ''
Baptism of Christ'', 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, 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 were
Giuseppe Ribera,
Carlo Sellitto,
Artemisia Gentileschi
Artemisia Lomi Gentileschi ( ; ; 8 July 1593) was an Italian Baroque painter. Gentileschi is considered among the most accomplished 17th century, 17th-century artists, initially working in the style of Caravaggio. She was producing professional ...
, and Caracciolo's pupil,
Mattia Preti
Mattia Preti (24 February 1613 – 3 January 1699) was an Italian Baroque artist who worked in Italy and Malta. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Saint John.
Life
Born in the small town of Taverna in Calabria, Preti was called ''Il Ca ...
, 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'' 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 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, is the ''Liberation of Saint Peter'' (1615), painted for the
Pio Monte della Misericordia,
[ 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 ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...
, Rome and Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025.
Florence ...
. 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 aesthe ...
of the Carracci cousins and the Emilian school, and began working towards a synthesis of their style with his own tenebrism – 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.
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, Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025.
Florence ...
. 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)
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''
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'' (Capodimonte)
Notes
References
Bibliography
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*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
Artists from the Kingdom of Naples
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