Andrea Camassei

Andrea Camassei was a Roman Baroque painter with a quiet, restrained manner and a liking for soft pastel colour. He worked in the circle of the Barberini family during the papacy of Urban VIII, alongside much louder talents.

He was born in 1602 in Bevagna, Umbria, and trained in Rome with Domenichino. His style reflects the calm classicism of Poussin and Andrea Sacchi rather than the showy manner of Pietro da Cortona. He painted altarpieces, including a Lamentation for Santa Maria della Concezione, and frescoes in the Lateran Baptistery and the Palazzo Pamphilj. His Massacre of the Niobids of 1638 to 1639 is in the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica in Rome. He died in Rome in 1649.

The Massacre of the Niobids, which we offer, is his best-known painting: a violent myth told with elegant, almost dancing figures.