Gioacchino Assereto

Gioacchino Assereto was a Genoese Baroque painter of religious and historical scenes. His mature style is bold and physical, with strong light and shadow, flickering torchlight and faces full of emotion. The stories are told close up, with figures crowded near the front of the picture.

He was born in Genoa in 1600, apprenticed at twelve to Luciano Borzone and then trained in the studio of Giovanni Andrea Ansaldo. A visit to Rome in 1639 brought him into contact with the followers of Caravaggio, and in the 1640s he studied the work of Rubens and van Dyck. He also painted frescoes in Genoese churches and palaces. The Palazzo Bianco in Genoa holds his Death of Cato and Esau Selling His Birthright. He died in Genoa in 1649.

In Tobias Healing the Blindness of His Father, look at how the light picks out hands and faces to tell the story.