Mario Minniti

Mario Minniti (Syracuse, December 8th, 1577 - November 22nd, 1640) is an active Italian painter in Sicily after 1606.

Biography

Arrived at Rome in 1593, he becomes the friend, the collaborator and the model of the Caravage in many his tables in which he was identified.

He ceases seeming model after 1600, when he is supposed to be himself married, but he could be implied with Caravage and of other protagonists in the brawl of street of 1606 which had like consequence the death of Ranuccio Tomassoni of the hands of Caravage. Its biographer records that it was run away in Sicily after a homicide, that it claimed a forgiveness, that one granted to him. He sheltered Caravage during the stay of this one in Sicily between 1608 and 1609, and he obtained the order for the to him Enterrement of holy Lucie .

In Sicily it established a famous workshop producing of the religious orders and thereafter became a respected local business man, whose many works are not easily ascribable to its hand alone. It is clear that it brought back in Sicily the lessons that he learned from Caravage, in particular the use of the Clearly-obscure dramatic and the description of scenes seized at the time of the greatest dramatic intensity, but its work (or rather the output of its workshop) was criticized for “reasons re-used without end” and “of the soft religious productions”. Nevertheless, it is held in a great regard in Sicily, and it is possible to speak about a “school of Minniti” in the artistic history of the island.

Model of Caravage

Young boy carrying a fruit basket (1593-1594),
the Monologuist of good adventure (1596), (version of the museum of Louvre),
the Musicians (1595-1596), in the character of the player of lute,
Boy bitten by a Lizard (1593),
Bacchus (1596),
the Player of lute (1600),
the Vocation of Saint Matthieu (1599-1600)
It Martyrdom of Saint Matthieu (1599-1600)

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