Vincenzo La Barbera

[1] The artist was born in Termini Imerese, to which his grandfather Bartolomeo Barbieri had moved in the first half of the 16th century before marrying a woman from that city named Lucrezia.

At the same time his flourishing studio produced large numbers of paintings and pupils, with commissions coming in from Madonie to monti Sicani.

In 1622 he moved back to Palermo for the ceremonies surrounding the canonisation of the Jesuit saints Francis Xavier and Ignatius of Loyola.

From the outset he was aided by the city architect Mariano Smiriglio and in 1626 he designed Palermo's Carmelo church.

[5] Another of La Barbera's pupils was his son Francesco Maria, who produced several works for Palermo's Jesuit church and became a priest.