GRIMALDI, FRANCESCO. - Architect and Theatine monk, b. in 1545 at Oppido di Lucania and d. probably around 1630. Active especially in Naples, he nevertheless must have completed his artistic education in Rome, showing clearly in his works the influences of the Roman school.
His first work in Naples was perhaps the church of S. Andrea delle Dame (1585-90), followed by the church of S. Paolo Maggiore (1590-1603), built upon the ruins of the temple of the Dioscuri and which is among the first Neapolitan churches of the Baroque age. He subsequently attended to the construction of the church of the Sapienza (begun in 1614 and completed by Fanzago), of S. Maria degli Angeli and of the SS. Apostoli (begun in 1626, and derived from the church of the Gesù in Rome). But always celebrated, also on account of the competition in which he was the winner over architects of great fame, is his chapel of the Treasure of S. Gennaro, begun in 1608 and arising as an independent church, which was later to provide the inspiration for Fanzago for some of his churches. Begun in 1620, and similar, according to ancient testimonies, to the chapel of the Treasure, was also the Trinità delle Monache, completed by Fanzago and now demolished. There has also been attributed to him the demolished church of the Gesù of Monteleone in Calabria, and at one time also S. Andrea della Valle in Rome. His work reveals an energetic plastic feeling for architectural forms, and thus outside the currents of the Neapolitan seventeenth century. G. has been reassessed by more recent criticism, which has defined him an artist superior even to the better-known Fanzago (Pane).