Mario Minniti

Mario Minniti (8 December 1577 – 22 November 1640) was an Italian Baroque painter active in Sicily after 1606.

Born in Syracuse, Sicily, he arrived in Rome in 1593, where he became the friend, collaborator, and model of the key Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610).

[1] His main fame today is his identification, or proposed identification, as a model in many of Caravaggio's early works, including Boy with a Basket of Fruit, The Fortune Teller, The Musicians, Boy Bitten by a Lizard (probable), Bacchus, The Lute Player, The Calling of Saint Matthew, and The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew.

In Sicily he established a successful workshop producing religious commissions and eventually became a respected local businessman.

It is clear that he brought to Sicily the lessons he had learnt from Caravaggio, in particular the use of dramatic chiaroscuro and the depiction of scenes seized at the moment of greatest dramatic intensity, but his work (or rather his workshop's output) has been criticised for "endlessly recycled motifs" and "bland religious canvasses".

Minniti at age 16, serving as a model for Caravaggio's painting Boy with a Basket of Fruit .
The Five Signs , workshop of Mario Minniti, showing characteristic Caravaggistic chiaroscuro and use of colour. Agira (Enna), Sicily – Church of Sant'Antonio.