After an apprenticeship as a mechanical draughtsman at the Armstrong armaments factory in Pozzuoli, he took Graphics and Decoration courses at the Academy of Fine Arts of Naples, gaining his diploma in 1923.

In the early 1920s, he affiliated himself with artists such as Biagio Mercadante, Vincenzo Ciardo, De Val, and Nicola Fabricatore, in a group known as the Gruppo Flegreo.

Soon however he became linked to a group of artists calling themselves the Gruppo degli Ostinati (Group of Obstinates); including Balestrieri, Franco Girosi, Alberto Chiancone, Eugenio Viti, and Francesco Galante; meeting at the Caffè Tripoli at Piazza del Plebiscito; and urging the introduction of Modernist styles into the Neapolitan art circles.

He also held many academic posts, including the Chair of Engraving, and later that of Set Design and Painting, at the Naples Academy of Fine Arts, of which he was director from 1950 to 1970.

In the thirties he completed sketches and large-scale works with provocative depictions of female nudes in landscapes rich immersed in water and scrub.