Italian family of artists and decorators. Pietro Martorana (b Palermo, 1705; d Palermo, 1759) worked in Palermo. He was a follower of Gaspare Serenari (1694–1759), and painted fresco cycles in the churches of S Rosalia (untraced), S Carlo and S Chiara. In 1736 he worked on the palace of Michele Gravina Branciforte, Prince of Butera, in collaboration with Olivio Sozzi (1696–1765), who is notable for having introduced the style of Sebastiano Conca to Palermo. Gioacchino Martorana (b Palermo, 1735; d Palermo, 1779), Pietro’s son, worked in Rome and Sicily. At the age of 17 he moved to Rome to study with Giuseppe Vasi, a former pupil of his father. Vasi arranged for him to stay with Marco Benefial. Gioacchino admired the painting of Conca and the classicism of Batoni. He worked in Rome until the 1770s, and among the works executed there (many for Palermo) are the Virgin, St Gaetano and Giuseppe Calasanzio (Rome, S Dorotea), eight scenes from the Life of St Benedict (Palermo, Gal. Reg. Sicilia) painted for S Rosalia, Palermo, four scenes from the Life of St Francis Xavier (1765; Palermo, S Francesco Saverio) and frescoes and an altarpiece (1768–9; Palermo, S Ninfa) for the church of the Padri Crociferi. The altarpiece is clearly influenced by Conca and by Batoni. Gioacchino Martorana’s work in Palermo began with the execution of a series of portraits, for example those of the architect Venanzio Marvuglia (Palermo, Bib. Com.) and the Viceroy Fogliani and his Consort (Palermo, Pal. Normanni), both dated to the 1770s. He also accepted commissions for fresco decorations, a few of which survive, for example those in the Palazzo Costantino and the Palazzo Comitini. These were influenced by the French Rococo, a style that had been brought to Palermo by Elia Interguglielmi. Martorana’s frescoes (c. 1780) in Palazzo Butera, Palermo, are firmly in the cosmopolitan Rococo style.