Daniel Seiter (Vienna, c. 1642-1647 - Turin, 1705) was a Baroque painter of Viennese origin who trained and worked mainly in Italy. He matters for moving from the Venetian and Roman traditions to the court of the Dukes of Savoy, where much of his career unfolded.
According to the Dutch biographer Arnold Houbraken, he was born on the Swiss border and raised in Vienna. As a young man he crossed the Alps to Venice, where he apprenticed with Johann Carl Loth. He copied his master's style so faithfully that, by Houbraken's time in 1718, it was hard to tell their paintings apart. He then moved to Rome to work in the studio of Carlo Maratta, and there he joined the Bentvueghels, who gave him the nickname "Morgenstar" (Morning Star). His success in Rome led to a marriage with a bookseller's daughter and a lucrative commission from Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy.
In 1675, when Victor Amadeus II had become duke after his father's death, he was commissioned to decorate the Royal Palace of Turin, and the work earned him a knighthood. A gallery bearing his name survives there today. He also helped with the fresco decoration of the dome of the chapel of the Ospedale Maggiore, and he travelled with the duke, painting in Brunswick and Dresden.
His service at the Savoyard court began well after 1655, so he did not witness the massacre of the Waldensians that the poet John Milton memorialized in On the Late Massacre in Piedmont. Details of his life are uncertain, and his legacy rests chiefly on his Turin decorations.
Works (1)
This 1685 oil painting by Daniel Seiter shows Diana beside the body of Orion, a mythological episode involving a scorpion and a violent death. The record offers no further details about its commission or composition, so any reading should stay close to the scene itself.
Where to see the work
- Louvre Museum Paris · 1