Gennaro Greco Art

Figures painted by Abraham Hondius Gennaro’s paintings invented a variety of ruined Architecture and other magnificent constructions and made superb underground places and imaginary prisons with horrible appearances,” writes Bernardo de Domenici in his 1743 Vite de Pittore, Scultori, ed Architetti Napoletani. Greco was highly esteemed in his lifetime. De Domenici titles a chapter “Notizie de Gennaro Greco … ,” with the painter’s name followed, in much smaller type, by a number of apparently lesser artists, including Leonardo Coccorante, whose star burns brightly today. When a child, Greco’s face was horribly disfigured in a fire; for the rest of his life he was called Il Mascacotta – literally “he of the cooked face.” His biographer, however, notes several compensations. The apparently prosperous Greco had three young, beautiful wives, and a multitude of sons, including one, Vincenza, who became a painter. A student of Andrea Pozzo’s 1693 treatise on architectural perspective – Perspectiva Pictorum et Architectorum – Greco’s earliest work involved painting ornament, temporary stages for religious celebrations, as well as perspectival frameworks for other artists’ figural projects. Greco’s mature work, of which the example here is characteristic, focuses on very carefully rendered views of imaginary ruins – vedute ideate – often set by a bay with highly detailed ships and other structures beyond. With the present picture, note the skillful manner in which the ruins are made lighter and lower contrast, as they recede into the distance enhancing the picture’s depth. Sebastian Deya