Sebastiano Conca
Sebastiano Conca (1679 - 1764), Italian painter of the Florentine school, was born at Gaeta, and studied at Naples under Francesco Solimena. His painting reflects the Baroque influence of Luca Giordano.
In 1706, along with his brother Giovanni, who acted as his assistant, he settled at Rome, where for several years he worked in chalk only, to improve his drawing. He was patronized by the Cardinal Ottoboni, who introduced him to Clement XI, who commissioned a well-received "Jeremiah" painted for the church of St. John Lateran. Conca was knighted by the pope. He collaborated with Carlo Maratta in the 'Coronation of Santa Cecilia' in the namesake's church of Santa Cecilia in Trastavere).
He received widespread official acclaim and patronage. He worked for a time for the Savoy family in Turin on the Oratory of San Filippo and Santa Teresa. He painted till late in life, and left behind him an immense number of pictures, mostly of a brilliant and showy kind, which are distributed among the churches of Italy. Of these the "Probatica," or "Pool of Siloam," in the hospital of Santa Maria della Scala, at Siena, is considered the finest. He was director of the Accademia di San Luca during the 1730-40s.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
