Giovanni Battista Caracciolo

Giovanni Battista Caracciolo, known as Battistello, was the first Neapolitan painter to take up Caravaggio’s style. His pictures have deep shadows, sharp light and solid, sculptural figures set close to the viewer.

He was born in Naples in 1578 and trained with Fabrizio Santafede. Caravaggio’s arrival in Naples in 1606 changed his direction completely, and his Immaculate Conception of 1607 already shows it. He made a trip to Rome in 1612 and later visited Genoa and Florence. His Liberation of Saint Peter of 1615 is at the Pio Monte della Misericordia in Naples, near Caravaggio’s Seven Works of Mercy. Later his style softened toward Bolognese classicism. His Salome is in the Uffizi. He died in Naples in 1635.

In Liberation of Saint Peter, notice how the light seems to come from a single source, cutting the figures out of darkness.