Viviano Codazzi was one of the most renowned architectural painters of the Italian Baroque period. Originally from Bergamo, he moved to Rome in his twenties for his apprenticeship. Rome was the city of the moment—Caravaggio had just left in 1607 for Malta, but his paintings were all on display in churches and palaces ready to give inspiration to any young artist that took time to look at them.
Codazzi was fascinated above all by all the ancient ruins that he encountered around the city. In 1633, he moved to Naples where he worked with Cosimo Fanzago on commissions for the Certosa di San Martino. To this period belongs the important commission of paintings for Philip IV’s Buen Retiro Palace in Spain, which was the fruit of the cooperation with Domenico Gargiulo, who gave life to Codazzi’s magnificent architectures.