Salvator Rosa (Naples, Italy 1615 – Rome, Italy 1673)

Born in Naples in 1615, where he studied and painted mostly battles, landscapes and general scenes influenced by the Spanish painter and engraver José de Ribera.

In 1635 Rosa moved to Rome to continue his studies, where he contracted malaria.

Already famous as an artist, he also became a popular comic actor; he wrote several satires on painting, poetry, music and even on the famous architect and sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini, portraying Rome as a difficult place to live. Forced to move to Florence, where he enjoyed the support and patronage of Cardinal Giovanni Carlo de’ Medici, Rosa’s home became a cultural hub of the literary, musical, and artistic circle called the Academy of the Beaten.

Returning to Naples, he painted numerous battles and marine landscapes, developing a unique romantic style focused on wild nature. In 1649, he returned definitively to Rome, with the firm intention of avoiding any limitations that could condition his art, refusing requests, commissions and down payments, autonomously deciding the subjects and prices of his paintings until the end of his career.

Rosa died in Rome in 1673. 

Photo UniCredit Group (Sebastiano Pellion di Persano)