Andrea Vaccaro (1598–1670)

• Was an Italian painter of the Baroque period.
• Andrea Vaccaro was born in Naples as the son of Pietro Baccaro and Gioanna di Glauso.
• His father practiced a legal profession.
• Vaccaro first applied himself to the study of literature, he then turned to art.
• Andrea Vaccaro was at the age of 16 apprenticed to Giovanni Tommaso Passaro.
• His paintings from shortly after 1620 show the influence of Caravaggio and his Neapolitan followers.
• He reportedly painted a copy of Caravaggio's Flagellation (Galleria Nazionale di Capodimonte).
• After 1630 Vaccaro came into contact with the work of Guido Reni, Anthony van Dyck, and Pietro Novelli.
• He produced copies of the work of these artists for Neapolitan collectors and Flemish art dealers in Naples such as Gaspar Roomer and Jan Vandeneyden.
• During his second marriage on 13 March 1640 his son Tomaso Domenico Nicola was born.
• He would later be known as the painter Nicola Vaccaro.

• From 1635 he started exporting religious canvases to Spain for religious orders and noble patrons.

• He was further patronized by the Spanish Viceroy of Naples, Gaspar de Bracamonte.
• In 1665 Vacarro was one of the founders and head of the 'Congrega dei SS Anna e Luca', a form of painter's guild that likely had as its aim to promote the status of artists in Naples.
• Between 1650 and 1670, Vaccaro's art was highly influential on Neapolitan painting besides that of Massimo Stanzione, the leading artist at that time, and that of the young Luca Giordano.

• Vaccaro was a Governatore of the 'Conservatorium and Church of Pietà dei Turchini'.

• His pupils included Giacomo Farelli and Giuseppe Fattoruso. 

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