(b Naples, 1663; d Nola, nr Naples, 2 May 1714). Italian painter. He started his career as a painter of ornament, but after studying Andrea Pozzo's treatise Perspectiva pictorum et architectorum (Rome, 1693-1700) he began to produce easel paintings of imaginary views (vedute ideate), referred to by his biographer de Dominici as 'crumbling architectural ruins ... magnificent buildings ... marvellous underground places ... and wonderful bizarre prisons'. He may also have created temporary decorations for religious celebrations. The sources claim that he worked as a specialist in perspective with decorative artists such as Francesco Solimena and Paolo De Matteis. He is thought to have created the gilded surrounds of De Matteis's frescoes (1696-8) in S Francesco Saverio (now known as S Ferdinando) in Naples. Voss rediscovered Greco when he found his signature on an architectural view that, with its pendant, came on to the Berlin art market in 1923. To these Voss added two canvases that appeared in London, attributed to Giovanni Ghisolfi, and two tondi (ex-Messinger priv. col., Rome) attributed to Pannini. There are also two signed paintings (Rouen, Mus. B.-A.; Castenaso, Molinari Pradelli priv. col.; for illustration of these and above works see Voss, 1926). These few works suggest a gifted artist, who played a major role in the development of the Neapolitan veduta ideata: his airy and theatrical architectural scenes transformed the 17th-century tradition of Viviano Codazzi and Codazzi's pupil, Ascanio Luciani (d 1706). Often viewed from an angle and constructed with consummate perspective skill, Greco's works reflect his gifts as a stage designer; in their fluent and brilliant designs, and pale greens, greys and blues, they are truly akin to 18th-century capriccios. His art is close to that of Pietro Capelli (d 1724), whose style is only slightly more ornate and sumptuous. The quietly decorative tone of Greco's work contrasts with the visionary and dramatic art of Leonardo Coccorante (1680-1750). It has been suggested that the stylistically diverse figures in Greco's paintings were executed by collaborators. A spatially daring perspective decoration in S Pietro at Cava dei Tirreni is attributed to him and dated to 1709 by Borelli. Greco died from falling from the scaffolding while frescoing the vault of an unspecified church in Nola. One of his sons, Vincenzo (d 1737), became a painter.

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The Concise Grove Dictionary of Art. Copyright © 2002 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved.