He was a member of the murderous Cabal of Naples, with Belisario Corenzio and Giambattista Caracciolo, who were rumoured to have poisoned and disappeared their competition for painting contracts.

[4][d] His initial training was said to be with Francesco Imparato and Fabrizio Santafede, but the first impulse that directed his art came from Caravaggio's sudden presence in Naples in late 1606.

Caracciolo, only five years younger than Caravaggio, was among the first there to adopt the startling new style with its sombre palette, dramatic tenebrism, and sculptural figures in a shallow picture plane defined by light rather than by perspective.

[7] Among the other Neapolitan Caravaggisti were Giuseppe Ribera,[e] Carlo Sellitto, Artemisia Gentileschi, and Caracciolo's pupil, Mattia Preti, then early in his career.

Back in Naples, he translated this into grandiose, wide-ranging scenes frescos including his masterpiece Christ Washing the Feet of the Disciples of 1622, painted for the Certosa di San Martino.