(bur Amsterdam, 20 Nov 1618). Flemish painter, active in Italy. He trained in the Netherlands in the circle of Anthonie Blocklandt and arrived in Italy in 1567, where he absorbed the late Mannerist style practised in Rome by Bartholomäus Spranger and Jan Speeckaert. From 1574 he was active in Naples and southern Italy, where he developed into a leading exponent of a delicate and decorative painting style, derived from the elegance of international Mannerism and from the principal Roman workshops, notably those led by Teodoro Zuccaro, Federico Zuccaro, Jacopo Bertoia and Raffaellino da Reggio at the Villa Farnese, Caprarola. His status in Naples is indicated by the scale of the commission to decorate the gilded and painted wooden ceiling (c. 1582) of S Gregorio Armenio, directing a workshop of Italian and Flemish artists. He also worked on the impressive carved and painted ceiling (1587–90) of S Maria Donnaromita, Naples. In the city and its surrounding region he executed a series of altarpieces of the Virgin of the Rosary (e.g. 1585, Santa Maria a Vico, S Maria Assunta; 1586, Saviano, S Giacomo Maggiore). These are more devout and Italianate in style, and demonstrate the influence of Counter-Reformation devotional fervour on his decorative style. His last works, the Birth of John the Baptist (1604; Airola, Annunziata) and the Virgin and Child with St Catherine and a Bishop (1608; Arienzo, Annunziata), in which he was assisted by his son Giovan Luca, display a more moving idiom. He left Naples for Amsterdam in 1610. The drawings ascribed to the Master of the Egmont Albums have recently been attributed to him.

• Hendricksz. (Centen), Dirck
  • Imparato, Gerolamo