Sebastiano Conca

SEBASTIANO CONCA (Gaeta 1680 - Naples, 1764).
"Holy Family".
Oil on canvas. Relined of the XIX century.
Measurements: 58 x 37 cm.
The painter chooses this theme to capture a familiar, everyday scene, without departing from the sacred theme that is evident in the atmospheric capture of vaporous character that offers the finish of the work. Thus, the image has the theatricality and splendor of the baroque, typical of the art of the Counter-Reformation. The aforementioned feature is evident in the break of glory that surrounds the entire scene and merges with an architecture. The composition follows a classic triangle shape, which promotes the clarity of the subject treated in the scene, even so, the lengthening of the canon of the characters and the tonalities indicate an advanced moment of the baroque style.
Sebastiano Conca was born in Gaeta, then part of the kingdom of Naples, and apprenticed in Naples with Francesco Solimena. In 1706, together with his brother Giovanni, who acted as assistant, he settled in Rome, where for several years he worked only with chalk, to improve his drawing. He was patronized by Cardinal Ottoboni, who introduced him to Clement XI, who commissioned a well-received Jeremiah for the church of St. John Lateran. Conca was knighted by the Pope. He collaborated with Carlo Maratta in the Coronation of Santa Cecilia (1721-24) in the homonymous church in Trastevere. In 1718 he was elected a member of the Accademia di San Luca, and was its director in 1729-1731, replacing Camillo Rusconi as Principe in 1732. He was also elected Principe in 1739-1741.
His painting was greatly influenced by that of the Baroque painter Luca Giordano. Conca had as pupils Pompeo Battoni, Andrea Casali, Placido Campoli, Corrado Giaquinto, Gregorio Giusti, Gaetano Lapis, Salvatore Monosilio, Litterio Paladini, Francesco Preziao, Rosalba Maria Salvioni, Gasparo Serenari, Agostino Masucci,[6] Domenico Giomi, and the Bavarian religious painter Franz Georg Hermann. Sebastiano's brother, Giovanni Conca (died 1764), painted the main altarpiece of the Madonna del Rosario and St. Dominic for the church of San Domenico in Urbino.
He received wide recognition and official patronage. He worked for a time for the Savoy family in Turin. In 1739 he published a guide to painting: Ammonimenti (or Admonitions), which mixed moralistic advice with technique. He returned to Naples in 1752, and enjoyed the royal patronage of Charles III.