Italian painter. He was the son of the painter Tommaso de Rosa. His first teacher was his stepfather, the Caravaggesque painter Filippo Vitale, with whom he was associated until Vitale's death in 1650. He had two sisters, Maria Grazia de Rosa, and Diana or Annella de Rosa. Pacecco continued his studies under Massimo Stanzione, whose elegant classicism was of fundamental importance to the development of his art, and he was one of Stanzione's most gifted pupils. The naturalism of Vitale dominates his earliest works (1625-30), such as the Virgin and Child (Naples, Santa Marta) and the Virgin of Purity (Naples, Santa Maria del Divino Amore). Vitale's influence is also shown in the Deposition (now in the Museum of the Certosa di San Martino). Also in the Certosa is a St Nicholas of Bari and Basilius (1636), showing influences of both Stanzione and Domenichino, who was in Naples from 1631. Attributed to Pacecco is a series portraying the Madonna with Child (one in San Martino, one in the Church of Santa Marta in Naples and one in the National Gallery of Prague). Of the 1640s is a painting, in collaboration with Vitale, of the Madonna with St Charles Borromeo in the church of San Domenico Maggiore. //