Giovanni Battista Recco

[1] Bernardo De Dominici, a biographer of Neapolitan artists, fails to mention him, but works signed by him were present in the inventories of such notable collections as those of the banker, Ferdinand van den Eynde, and Don Antonio Ruffo, of Messina.

There is also a short note (c.1675) from the Florentine art critic, Filippo Baldinucci, describing Recco as a deceased "painter of fish".

[2] He was completely forgotten until 1961, when a museum official named Nolfo di Carpegna (1913–1996) noticed four stylistically similar paintings, signed with the monogram "G.B.R.".

[3] Six more signed paintings were discovered by the art historian, Raffaelo Causa (1923–1984), in 1972.

[1] Several Spanish artists were residents of Naples at the time, and may have provided some inspiration.