Vincenzo Malò (Cambrai 1606 - Rome 1650)

The Flemish painter Vincenzo Malò was born at Cambrai in 1606. Early on he moved to Italy to study art, attracted like many of his compatriots by the opportunities for work that would surely follow such an experience. He was in Genoa from around 1625 and throughout the following decade, apart from brief journeys to other parts of the country.
His early style was influenced by the late Mannerist school, but in his maturity Malò developed his own mode of expression, following the example of Rubens and van Dyck. He specialized in religious subjects and genre paintings which would be popular with the market. The development of his style owed much to his contacts with the large circle of Northern painters working in Genoa in the 17th century, as well as to his personal experience of the work of Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, called Il Grechetto. Malò’s pupils included Anton Maria Vassallo (1617/18-1660), notable painter of the Genoese Baroque school who helped to popularize the style of Rubens, adopting his realism and unique chromatic impasto. Malò died in Rome in 1650, at the age of 45.