BARBALONGA, ANTONIO. - Painter to the Alberti family, born in Messina in 1600, died in 1649. In his youth he came to Rome, where he was a fol-
lower of Domenichino, with whom he collaborated in S. Maria della Vittoria and, perhaps, in S. Carlo ai Catinari.
His paintings are also to be found in S. Silvestro al Quirinale and in S. Andrea della Valle. Having returned to Messina (1631), he executed numerous works (some were transported to Spain after the revolution of 1674), among them the significant S. Filippo Neri (in the church of the same name), the Ascensione (in the monastery of S. Michele), and the S. Carlo Borromeo (in the church of S. Gioacchino).
The redundant, somewhat theatrical decorativeness of B.'s manner influenced, through his numerous pupils, Sicilian painting in the second half of the seventeenth century.
BBL.: Biographical notices in the Vite of G. P. Bellori (ed. in offert del R. Istit. d'Archeol. e Storia dell'arte, Roma 1941, p. 360) and of G. B. Passeri (ed. Hess. V. indice); for B.'s works in Sicily, cf.: F. Hackert-G. Grano, Memorie dei pittori messinesi, Napoli 1792, reprint edited by S. Bottari, 1932, p. 23; E. Mauceri-S. Agati, Il Cicerone per la Sicilia, Palermo 1910, pp. 204, 322, 324-26, 331. For the Roman period, v.: H. Voss, Die Malerei des Barocks in Rom, Berlino 1925, p. 503. Elsa Gerlini