François de Nomé Metz circa 1593 - after 1644 Naples

Born in Metz, De Nomé moved to Rome in about 1604, where he studied under a 'Maestro Baldassare', who can be tentatively identified with Balthazar Lauwers (1578-1645). By 1610 it would appear that De Nomé was an independent master working in Naples, and by the mid 1610’s he was gaining some of the most prestigious commissions available including a series of twelve paintings of “The Lives of the Pharaohs” (1618).

The works of Didier Barra (1590 – 1652) and Francois De Nomé were long confused, and both were mistakenly attributed under the name Monsù Desiderio. This pseudonym, probably deriving from the “Panoramic view of Naples” in the Museo San Martino, Naples which is signed “Desiderius Barra ex civitate Methensi in Lotharingia”, should only be identified with Dider Barra. The career of Barra shows strong similarities to that of De Nomé, as he was also born in Metz, and also was active in Naples. The similarities of these two hands do much to discredit the idea that the style of De Nomé was due to schizphrenia or mental illness, but rather it illustrates a concerted efforted to provide a rich fusion of the architectural tradition of oltra alpe artists such as Hans Vredeman de Vries with the Italian mannerist traditions. The present work is typical of De Nomé’s oeuvre depicting the rich grotesque designs with dramatic lighting and thick impasto but also adopting real classical ruins and motifs to produce an almost surreal fantasy.