[1] Born in Dublin on 18 September 1941,[2] he was the only son of Ferdinando Caracciolo, Prince of Cursi, a member of an old Italian family, originally from Naples.
[5] After being educated at The Oratory School in Woodcote, England,[5] he went to Florence at the age of 19 to study art at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze at the suggestion of Pietro Annigoni, studying under Signorina Nera Simi.
[3] In 1964 Caracciolo was one of the painters chosen to paint a replica of the Sistine Chapel for the scenery of the 1965 film The Agony and the Ecstasy, on the life of Michelangelo.
[7] Becoming a noted portrait painter, among those who sat for him were Lord Iveagh, J. P. Donleavy, Anthony Bygraves, and Sir Marc Cochrane.
[3] From 1975 to 1978 he lived at Rosemount House, near Moate, County Westmeath, where he painted many scenes of the surrounding countryside[9] and exhibited at the Lad Lane Gallery in Dublin in 1978.