Sebastiano Conca - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

SEBASTIANO CONCA (1679-1764), Italian painter of the Florentine school, was born at Gaeta, and studied at Naples under Francesco Solimena. 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.; and a Jeremiah painted in the church of St John Lateran was rewarded by the pope with knighthood and by the cardinal with a diamond cross. His fame grew quickly, and he received the patronage of most of the crowned heads of Europe. He painted till near the day of his death, 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.