Lorenzo De Caro

Glory of St Francis of Sales, Louvre Museum

Lorenzo de Caro (baptised 29 May 1719 – 2 December 1777) was an Italian painter, active in the late Baroque style in his native city of Naples.

Biography

Decaro's biographical information is sparse, and many canvases refer to painter of Neapolitan origin, active between 1740 and 1761. His name was known only from the autograph on the canvases. Decaro is known to have married the 22-year-old Anna Mariana Bozza on 28 February 1743. The couple had 10 children. According to a “census” of the local parish in 1757, the painter’s studio was in Vicolo della Porta piccola del Rosario, a narrow street between the areas of Chiaia and the Spanish Quarter.

Decaro lived and worked at that address, according to recently discovered documentation in the archives of the Banco di Napoli, reflecting the “public banks of Naples”. The records of the Banco San Giacomo include receipts of rent payments made by the painter in 1768 and 1769 to his landlord, the Prince of Cannito, for “two rooms and cellar on the ground floor of the house of the aforesaid Prince in the Sant’Anna di Palazzo road”.

Works in Naples

Works outside of Naples

Lorenzo De Caro also carried out work at a number of other locations – both public buildings and private residences: Palace of the Governors of the Church of Saint Anna “Lombardi” on the Guantai road (1741), De Stasio-Maiello home behind the Nunziatura church (1745), De Simone-Coppola home in via Rosario di Palazzo (1748), Comes- Cordosa home at Montecalvario (1748), the home of the Marquis Sterlich on the Nardones street (1749), home of Michele Aveta on the Chiaia bridge (1757), home of Pietro Bozzoli at the Concordia area (1759).

The work of the artist listed above, as well as other recent research, is proof of the fact that Lorenzo De Caro was Neapolitan, as were his forbears, and that he spent virtually his whole life in Naples. The only time he spent “beyond the city walls” would have been to carry out a certain number of commissioned works: in the province of Frosinone, at San Germano (now Cassino) for paintings in the local cathedral in 1740 and for the church of the Virgin Mary dell’Olivella in S. Elia Fiumerapido. He went to Bracigliano (in the province of Salerno) in order to paint the frescoes of the Calvary on one of the walls of the cloister of the convent of Saint Francis.

References

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