Niccolò Codazzi

Niccolò Codazzi (Naples 1642 – Genoa 1693) was an Italian painter of architectural paintings, capricci and vedute. He also created decorative elements in frescos as a painter of 'quadratura'. A son of the prominent architectural painter Viviano Codazzi, he trained with his father and was active in Rome, Paris and Genoa.

Life Viviano Codazzi was born in Genoa as the first born son of Viviano Codazzi and Candida Miranda. His father had moved to Genoa in 1633 to work on major commissions. His family relocated to Rome following the anti-Spanish revolt of Masaniello in 1647.

Niccolò Codazzi studied along with Vicente Giner under his father Viviano Codazzi. He later worked in his father's workshop. The works of father and son during his early period are difficult to distinguish. He was in Rome from 1675 and lived near the church of San Macuto. He was one of the artists who worked on the decoration of the piano nobile (grand salon) of the Palazzo Altieri.

Niccolò Codazzi moved to France, a move which was probably related to the fierce competition amongst painters in Rome. He was first in Aix-en-Provence where he collaborated with Nicolas Pinson. He later moved to Paris where he lived around 1681 and 1682. He clearly gained some notoriety in Paris since in 1681 he applied to enter the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture.

During his French sojourn, he received a commission by king Louis XIV to paint landscapes with architecture for the Grand appartement de la reine at Versailles. He was commissioned to paint four large architecture paintings together with the painter René-Antoine Houasse for the queen’s stairs in Versailles. The subject matter and style of his painting show the growing popularity of Classical Rome with collectors in the 17th century.

The type of decorative architectural paintings that Codazzi created represented a form that had become popular in mid-17th century Rome. The predecessor of this type of vedute can be found in 16th-century painting, and in particular in the architectural settings that were painted as the framework of large-scale frescoes and ceiling decorations known as 'quadratura'. These architectural elements gained prominence in 17th-century painting to become stand-alone subjects of easel paintings.