Leonardo Coccorante

1680-1750

Leonardo Coccorante (1680–1750) was a Neapolitan painter celebrated for his capricci — imaginary vistas built from the ruins of classical architecture, arranged with theatrical scale and dramatic light. Working within the veduta tradition, he populated his crumbling colonnades, arches and temples with small figures that make the ruins seem all the more vast. He trained and worked alongside Nicola Casissa, the Flemish landscape painter Jan Frans van Bloemen, and Angelo Maria Costa, and is also linked with Gabriele Ricciardelli; between 1737 and 1739 he took part in decorating the royal palace in Naples, where he lived and worked his whole life until his death in 1750. His paintings, prized for their inventive architecture and atmospheric depth, are held today in museums across Europe and the Americas, from the Prado and the Museum of Grenoble to the Honolulu Museum of Art and the Lowe Art Museum in Florida.