Gaetano Lapis

Lapis was born on 13 August 1706 in the central Italian city of Cagli, the son of Filippo Lapis, a wool merchant, and his wife Olimpia Orlandini of Cantiano.

[1][2][3] He moved to Rome at a young age and, after a brief apprenticeship with Cristoforo Creo, entered the workshop of Sebastiano Conca, whom he may have met in 1720 when Conca was working on his Madonna and Child with Saint Teresa in Cagli Cathedral.

[4] In his 1787 biography of Lapis, Giovanni Gherardo De Rossi records that Sebastiano Conca "was fond of his new pupil and taught him with devotion even though he saw he was adopting a style totally different from the one he adhered to".

[5] During his time in Conca's workshop he was given the nickname Il Carraccetto, a reference to the influence of Bolognese masters of the previous century such as Carracci, Guido Reni and Domenichino.

[10] A document in the archive of the Accademia di San Luca records the funeral expenses for the "late academician Gaetano Lapis", indicating that he died in April 1773.