Gaspar Roomer

[1] He became very wealthy from his trading activities, mainly with the Flemish and Dutch provinces and from banking, including as a financier to Philip IV, King of Spain.

[2] He owned a sumptuous villa called 'Villa Bisignano' (also referred to now as 'Villa Roomer') in the Barra neighborhood of Naples.

The balustrades in the villa, perhaps at his suggestion, are decorated with carvings of warriors and hunchbacks, based on northern European prints.

He was active in the trade of paintings between Southern and Northern Italy through such agents as the Flemish artists and traders Cornelis de Wael and Abraham Brueghel, who were resident in Genoa and Rome.

[4] This Rubens painting may have contributed to the introduction to Naples of a neo-Venetian style that would impact on the evolution of the local Baroque.