Andrea Vaccaro was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 painter of the Baroque

Baroque

The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

 period, active mostly in Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

 in a tenebrist

Tenebrism

Tenebrism, from the Italian tenebroso , is a style of painting using very pronounced chiaroscuro, where there are violent contrasts of light and dark, and darkness becomes a dominating feature of the image...

 style.

Born in Naples to a family of painters, including Domenico Antonio

Domenico Antonio Vaccaro

Domenico Antonio Vaccaro was an Italian painter, sculptor and architect, the son and pupil of Lorenzo Vaccaro. Lorenzo was in turn a pupil of Cosimo Fanzago and was part of a large family of artists including Andrea Vaccaro, a pupil of Girolamo Imparato.Domenico Antonio was born in Naples and his...

 and Lorenzo Vaccaro

Lorenzo Vaccaro

Lorenzo Vaccaro was an Italian late-Baroque sculptor. He worked in a formalized restrained style.He was born in Naples, the son of a lawyer. He apprenticed with Cosimo Fanzago and Dionisio Lazzari. He was a close friend of Francesco Solimena...

, he first apprenticed with the late-Mannerist

Mannerism

Mannerism is a period of European art that emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. It lasted until about 1580 in Italy, when a more Baroque style began to replace it, but Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century throughout much of Europe...

 painter Girolamo Imparato

Girolamo Imparato

Girolamo Imparato was an Italian painter working in a late-Renaissance or Mannerist style, active mainly in Naples. His father, the painter Francesco Imparato, was a colleague of Francesco Santafede.-References:...

. His initial paintings soon after 1620 show the influence of Caravaggio

Caravaggio

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was an Italian artist active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily between 1593 and 1610. His paintings, which combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, had a formative influence on the Baroque...

 and his Neapolitan followers. He painted a copy of Caravaggio’s Flagellation (Galleria Nazionale di Capodimonte), at one time, both the copy and original hung together in San Domenico Maggiore

San Domenico Maggiore

San Domenico Maggiore is a church in Naples, southern Italy, located in the square with the same name. The square is one of the most interesting in Naples and is on the street popularly called "Spaccanapoli" in the historic center of Naples...

. He also painted a David with the Head of Goliath (Florence) and Saint Sebastian (Capodimonte). Vaccaro was both a friend and competitor of Massimo Stanzioni. After 1630, Vaccaro’s tenebrism became more illuminated and less harsh, influence by more sedate sources such as Guido Reni

Guido Reni

Guido Reni was an Italian painter of high-Baroque style.-Biography:Born in Bologna into a family of musicians, Guido Reni was the son of Daniele Reni and Ginevra de’ Pozzi. As a child of nine, he was apprenticed under the Bolognese studio of Denis Calvaert. Soon after, he was joined in that...

 and Pietro da Cortona

Pietro da Cortona

Pietro da Cortona, by the name of Pietro Berrettini, born Pietro Berrettini da Cortona, was the leading Italian Baroque painter of his time and also one of the key architects in the emergence of Roman Baroque architecture. He was also an important decorator...

. He was patronized by the Spanish Viceroy in Naples, Gaspar de Bracamonte, 3rd Count of Peñaranda; Gaspar Roomer

Gaspar Roomer

Gaspar Roomer was a prominent Flemish merchant and art patron of the early 17th century. Born in Antwerp, he lived for at least four decades in Naples. He became very wealthy from shipping enterprises, mainly to the Flemish and Dutch provinces and from banking. he owned Palazzo della Stella in...

; and Jan Vandeneyden. One of his pupils was Giuseppe Fattoruso

Giuseppe Fattoruso

Giuseppe Fattoruso was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active in his natal city of Naples. He was a pupil of Andrea Vaccaro....

.