Filippo Napoletano Biography
Filippo Napoletano, whose real name was Filippo Teodoro di Liagno (or Teodoro Filippo de Liagno) (circa 1587-89 - 1629) was an Italian artist with a varied production, mainly landscapes and genre scenes and also drawings or engravings of objects different and often particular such as exotic soldiers, animal skeletons or urban landscapes.
Born in Rome, he moved as a child with his family to Naples, where he began his career (1600-1613). He moved to Rome around 1614. He was influenced by the successful Flemish landscape painters in Italy such as Paul Bril, Gottfried Wals and Adam Elsheimer. He became one of Cardinal Del Monte's protégés.
In 1617, Cosimo II de' Medici called him to Florence, where he worked closely with Jacques Callot. He served as court painter to the Medici family and was highly esteemed for his original works with their wealth of dramatic nocturnal scenes. From the notebooks, it is known that Filippo made hundreds of sketches of Tuscan landscapes and cities. After his return to Rome in 1621, he combined oil painting with fresco decorations depicting landscape views in Lazio with ancient Roman finds. Napoletano's eclectic production recalls the nature of Jacopo Ligozzi, a contemporary Tuscan.
Starting in 1620, he reproduced in engravings part of his collection of animal skeletons owned by Johann Faber, a Bavarian physician-naturalist resident in Rome and member of the Accademia dei Lincei. In 1622, Napoletano published twelve engravings of caprices and military uniforms (which he signed as Teodor Filippo de Liagno).
He is described by Giovanni Baglione as the owner of a collection, a "wunderkammer" of beautiful oddities. After Napoletano's death in Rome in 1628, similar objects were purchased by collectors such as Cardinal Ippolito Aldobrandini (the future Clement VIII) and Cassiano dal Pozzo.
