Sebastiano Conca

Variant namesauktoriserad namnform: Sebastiano Conca

DatesBiographical dates: 1764 Dead: dead 1764-09-01 Born: born 1676 or 1680 Born: born 1676 or 1680

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BiographyBiography: Sebastiano Conca was born in Gaeta and was possibly of Spanish extraction. He initially trained in Naples under the direction of Francesco Solimena. From 1707 he was based in Rome where he gained the patronage of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, who introduced him to Pope Clement XI. In his earliest works, like the Adoration of the Magi from 1707 (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tours), the influences of Giuseppe Chiari and Luca Giordano are visible. Conca’s first important public commission is from 1714. He was engaged by Cardinal Tommaso Maria Ferrari to paint for the Cappella del Rosario in San Clemente in Rome. For the same church, Clement XI later commissioned Conca to fresco the Miracle of St Clement in the central nave, where he worked together with the most renowned artists of the day. A second papal commission was the oval medallion of Jeremiah (1718) for the Cathedral of San Giovanni in Laterano. In 1714 Conca entered the Congregazione dei Virtuosi del Pantheon and between 1710 and 1718 he held a successful private Academy of the Nude in his home. His most important ceiling fresco was St Cecilia in Glory, commissioned by Cardinal Francesco Acquaviva in 1724 for the church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere in Rome. Conca became a member of the Accademia di San Luca in 1718 and was elected as its principe for two periods, 1729–32 and 1739–40. Dating from 1740 is the Assumption of the Virgin with St Sebastian for the academy church of Santi Martina e Luca in Rome. Conca was much sought after and received commissions not only in Italy, but also from Spain, Portugal, Austria and Poland. After Cardinal Ottoboni’s death in 1740, and with declining demand for Conca’s style in Rome, he moved to Naples in 1752, where he spent the last period of his life.

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