Salvator Rosa was a painter, draughtsman, engraver, poet and actor from Naples. After training in his home town, he moved to Rome in 1635, where he received his first commissions and co-founded an acting company. Between 1640 and 1649, Rosa worked for Giovanni Carlo de' Medici in Florence. During this time, he began to write satirical poems. In 1649, Rosa finally settled in Rome. He specialised in dramatic landscape paintings, often showing wild mountain landscapes, with mythological scenes. Furthermore, his witch scenes, philosophical allegories and history paintings were also popular with collectors. Salvator Rosa is described by two contemporary biographers, Filippo Baldinucci and Giovanni Battista Passeri, as an extravagant character with a quick-temper and great ambition. Rosa was interested in philosophy and translated his knowledge into intellectually complex allegories. However, his landscapes and genre scenes were always more popular with the public. Rosa was also known for his crude humour and outrageous behaviour towards his commissioners. Although his art was very popular among the Roman nobility and celebrated by intellectuals, Rosa was dissatisfied because he desperately wanted to execute a painting for a Roman church. This wish was not fulfilled until 1669: his "Martyrdom of the Saints Cosmas and Damian" can still be seen today in the church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini. On his deathbed, Rosa married Lucrezia, his long-time lover and mother of his son, in 1673. According to contemporary descriptions, Rosa angrily and vociferously fought his approaching death.