Mattia preti biography samples

Italian painter (1613–1699)

Mattia Preti (24 February 1613 – 3 January 1699) was an Italian Baroque artist who worked in Italy and Malta.

Mattia preti biography samples

He was appointed a Member of the Order of Saint John.

Life

Born in the small town of Taverna in Calabria, Preti was called Il Cavalier Calabrese (the Calabrian Knight) after appointment as a Knight of the Order of St.

John (Knights of Malta) in 1660.^[1] His early apprenticeship is said to have been with the "Caravaggist" Giovanni Battista Caracciolo, which may account for his lifelong interest in the style of Caravaggio.

Probably before 1630, Preti joined his brother Gregorio (also a painter), in Rome, where he became familiar with the techniques of Caravaggio and his school as well as with the work of Guercino, Rubens, Guido Reni, and Giovanni Lanfranco.

In Rome, he painted fresco cycles in the churches of Sant'Andrea della Valle and San Carlo ai Catinari. Between 1644 and 1646, he may have spent time in Ve