Italian painter. He was apprenticed to Nicola Maria Rossi, then to Solimena. His spiritual master, however, was undoubtedly Luca Giordano. By the 1740s Giaquinto was the leading exponent of the Rococo school that flourished in Rome during the first half of the 18th century. Later he established himself as Europe's foremost fresco painter after Giambattista Tiepolo. From 1753 to 1762, Giaquinto moved to Madrid where he achieved great academic honours (appointed director of the Academia de San Fernando) as well as professional ones (as supervisor of the royal tapestry manufactory in Madrid). In 1755 he frescoed the Royal Chapel in the Royal Palace, painted seven canvases for the Palace of Aranjuez, supplied further canvases for the Salesian convent in Madrid, and finally painted the famous frescoes in the Royal Palace depicting The Birth of the Sun in the Hall of the Columns, and Spain Saluting Religion and the Church on the staircase. Giaquinto had great influence on Spanish painters, particularly the young Goya. In 1762 he returned Naples where his work influenced Neapolitan artists. //