Carlo Sellitto (1581 – 2 October 1614 in Naples) was an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

painter of the

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

period. One of the most gifted followers of Michelangelo Merisi da

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 ...

(1571–1610), Sellitto played an important role in the spread of Caravaggism to

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 in the development away from Late

Mannerism Mannerism is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, when the Baroque style largely replaced it ...

to a greater naturalism. The son of a

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

and gilder, he was apprenticed briefly to the Piedmontese painter Giovanni Antonio Ardito (c. late 16th century–early 17th) before moving (c. 1591) to the studio of the Flemish painter Louis Croys. By 1608, at the age of 27 years, he had left Croys and had set up his own workshop in the Via Donnalbina, attracting to it such artists as

Filippo Napoletano Filippo Napoletano, whose real name was Filippo Teodoro di Liagno (or Teodoro Filippo de Liagno) (c. 1587-89 – November 1629) was an Italian artist, with a varied output, mainly Landscape painting, landscape and genre painting, genre scenes ...

, Giovan Mattea Arciero (b 1591) and Francesco Abbenante (first decade of the 17th century). The talent for portraiture that Sellitto had shown while working with Croys brought him commissions from the court and aristocracy, although none of these documented works has been identified. Sellitto would have known Caravaggio during the artist's exile in Naples in 1606/1607, but the date indicates that this ''Baptist'' (illustrated) was painted several years previously – cf. Caravaggio's own treatment of the theme of ''

John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

''. He died on 2 October 1614 after a brief 6-year independent career.

References

External links

* *Paintings by Sellitto a
''Montemurro Sul Web''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sellitto, Carlo 1581 births 1614 deaths Italian Baroque painters 16th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 17th-century Italian painters Painters from Naples Caravaggisti