Aniello Falcone 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...

 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...

 painter

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

, active 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...

 and noted for his painted depictions of battle scenes.

Biography

Born in Naples the son of a tradesman, he showed his artistic tendency at an early age. He first received some instruction from a relative, and then became one of the most prominent pupils apprenticed under José de Ribera. Salvatore Rosa, in turn, is said to have apprenticed under Aniello.

Besides battle pictures, large and small, taken from biblical as well as secular history, he painted various religious subjects, which, however, count for little in his general reputation. He became, as a battle painter, almost as celebrated as Giacomo Borgognone

Jacques Courtois

Jacques Courtois was a French painter.-Biography:He was born at Saint-Hippolyte, near Besançon. His father was a painter, and with him Jacques remained studying up to the age of fifteen...

, and was named L' Oracolo delle Battaglie. His works have animation, variety, truth to nature, and careful color.

Falcone was bold, generous, accustomed to arms, and an excellent fencer. In the insurrection of 1647, led by Masaniello

Masaniello

Masaniello was a Neapolitan fisherman, who became leader of the revolt against Spanish Habsburg rule in Naples in 1647.-Name and place of birth:...

, he resolved to be bloodily avenged for the death, at the hands of two Spaniards, of a nephew and of a pupil in the school of art which he had established in Naples. Salvator Rosa

Salvator Rosa

Salvator Rosa was an Italian Baroque painter, poet and printmaker, active in Naples, Rome and Florence. As a painter, he is best known as an "unorthodox and extravagant" and a "perpetual rebel" proto-Romantic.-Early life:...

, Carlo Coppola

Carlo Coppola

Carlo Coppola was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active in his natal city of Naples. He was a pupil of the battle-painter Aniello Falcone, and was adept at the same topic...

, among others, and he formed an armed band named the Compagnia della Morte, or Company of Death. (See Salvator Rosa

Salvator Rosa

Salvator Rosa was an Italian Baroque painter, poet and printmaker, active in Naples, Rome and Florence. As a painter, he is best known as an "unorthodox and extravagant" and a "perpetual rebel" proto-Romantic.-Early life:...

.) They battled in the streets by day; at night they were painters again, and handled the brush with impetuous zeal.

Rule restored, they decamped. Falcone and Rosa made off to Rome; here Borgognone noticed the works of Falcone, and became his friend, and a French gentleman induced him to go to France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, where Louis XIV

Louis XIV of France

Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...

 became one of his patrons. Ultimately Jean-Baptiste Colbert

Jean-Baptiste Colbert

Jean-Baptiste Colbert was a French politician who served as the Minister of Finances of France from 1665 to 1683 under the rule of King Louis XIV. His relentless hard work and thrift made him an esteemed minister. He achieved a reputation for his work of improving the state of French manufacturing...

 obtained permission for the painter to return to Naples, and there he died in 1665.

Two of his battle-pieces are to be seen in the Louvre

Louvre

The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...

 and in the Naples museum; he painted a portrait of Masaniello, and engraved a few plates. Among his principal pupils, besides Rosa and Coppola (whose works are sometimes ascribed to Falcone himself), were Domenico Gargiulo

Domenico Gargiulo

Domenico Gargiulo was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, mainly active in Naples and known for his landscapes....

 (named Micco Spadaro), Paolo Porpora

Paolo Porpora

Paolo Porpora was an Italian painter of the late-Baroque, who was active mainly in Naples and specialized in floral still lifes. He is documented as a pupil of Giacomo Recco, the father of Giuseppe Recco, and said to have worked under Aniello Falcone. He joined the Roman Accademia di San Luca from...

 and Andrea di Lione.