(b Alberobello, nr Bari, 9 Oct 1848; d Naples, 16 Nov 1916). Italian architect and decorator. He attended the school of painting at the Istituto di Belle Arti, Naples (1865–9), and after a period spent in his native town, where he apparently began his architectural activity, he moved permanently to Naples. His earliest works included the façade decoration (1874) for Naples Cathedral and a plan for the building’s restoration, which was a prize-winning exhibit at the Esposizione Nazionale di Belle Arti (1877) in Naples. He later carried out many restoration works in religious buildings in Naples. In collaboration with Ernesto di Mauro he also decorated the Galleria Umberto I, which was built (1887–92) from designs by the architect Emanuele Rocco and the engineer Francesco Paolo Boubée. He became a decorative painter with a design (c. 1869) for the cradle of Prince Victor-Emanuel (later Victor-Emanuel III (reg 1900–46)), which was realized in collaboration with the sculptor Vincenzo Gemito. Curri’s most famous work of this kind is the decoration, in tempera and pastel, of the interior of the Caffè Gambrinus (1890), Naples; at the time the rooms were said to be better suited for an art gallery than for a café or beer hall. Curri’s prolific activity extended outside Naples, to the province of Campania and to Alberobello, and he was also a lecturer in architecture and decoration at the University of Naples. Among his last works was the pavilion of Campania, Basilicata and Calabria for the Esposizione Nazionale in Rome (1911; with Alfonso Guerra and a team of painters and sculptors).

• Curri, Antonio
  • Rocco, Emanuele