Mario Minniti Biography
Mario Minniti was born in Syracuse on 8 December 1577. After his father's death, at the age of 15, he began to dedicate himself to an artistic apprenticeship. Around 1593 he decided to move to Rome where he met Caravaggio and became friends with him. He frequented the same workshop as Maestro Merisi, becoming his collaborator, copyist and even his model. After the Roman period, in 1606 Minniti settled in Sicily, where he was responsible for the creation of a "Madonna del Soccorso" for the church of San Giovanni Battista in Vizzini, a work which unfortunately has been lost. In 1608, according to some sources, he welcomed Caravaggio fleeing from Malta to Syracuse, where he enjoyed great prestige as a painter, perhaps earning him the commission for the famous work of the "Burial of Saint Lucia" (now preserved in Syracuse, at Palazzo Bellomo). Minniti's artistic activity took place mainly between Syracuse and Messina, with short periods spent in Malta and Palermo. Among his most famous works, the "Saint Benedict preparing his own burial" and the intense "Martyrdom of Saint Lucia" in Syracuse are remembered.
In Messina the "Beheading of Saint John the Baptist" and the "Miracle of the Widow of Naim", a painting already highly appreciated in the painter's time. Minniti died in Syracuse on 22 November 1640 and was buried in the convent of San Domenico. Among his followers , we remember in particular the brothers Giuseppe and Giovanni Reati.
