Carlos Sellito
(1581 - 1614) |
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Portraiture, Secular Narratives Art Work
| Name: |
Carlos Sellito |
| Gender: |
Male |
| Place of Birth: |
Naples |
| Nationality: |
Italian |
| Birth: |
1581 |
| Death: |
1614 |
| Website: |
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| Past Auctions: |
Click Here |
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Quick Facts
| Known For: |
Portraiture, Secular Narratives |
| Medium: |
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| Method: |
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| Style: |
Baroque |
| Fine Art Profession(s): |
Painting
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Biography
| Considered the first Neapolitan Caravaggist, Carlo was the son and pupil of the painter Sebastiano Sellito. After studying briefly with Giovanni Antonio Ardito (ca. 1591), Carlo joined the studio of Loise Croys, a Fleming who had recently arrived from Rome. In 1607 Sellito became engaged to Croys's daughter, Claudia, and that same year he became an independent painter. Sellito's earliest success came as a portrait painter. Commission and payment records date back to 1607, though few of the works can be identified. Carlo soon moved on to religious subjects, producing two Stories ofSt Peter for the Cortone Chapel, S. Anna dei Lombardi (1608-12). From 1611 to 1612 he was painting the 5. Carlo Borromeo for the church of S. Aniello at Caponapoli (now in the Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte) and then the Adoration of the Shepherds for S. Maria del Popolo agli Incurabili. In 1612 he was named godparent to the oldest son of Filippo Vitale, and the following year he married Porzia Perrone, his betrothal to Claudia having been terminated. Sellito's most famous work, the S. Cecilia, painted in 1613 for S. Maria della Solitaria, Naples (now in the Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte), is probably one of his last efforts. Here the synthesis of his mannerist training and Caravaggesque lighting and realism are clearly evident. Its selective use of light and economic handling of form also hints at Sellito's understanding of Saraceni. Nonetheless, its haunting, elegiac mood is Sellito's own and ranks him among the great masters of the Neapolitan school. In August 1613 Sellito was paid on account for the Crucifixion for the Marchese di Misanello's chapel in S. Maria di Portonova. A monumental yet strangely primitive work, it has affinities to Spanish painting and may have been his final autograph effort. The commission Sellito received in 1613 to paint a Liberation of St. Peter went to Carracciolo instead, who completed the painting for the Pio Monte della Misericordia in 1615. In 1614 Sellito left two paintings in his will: the Vision ofS. Candida to S. Angelo a Nilo and St. Anthony of Padua (doc. 1614, unfinished) to S. Nicola alia Dogana. Today the St. Anthony is in the church of the Incoronata at Capodimonte. |
Samples of Work
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