But his first scholar, in point of excellence, was Paolo de' Matteis, mentioned also by Pascoli among the best scholars of Morandi, and an artist who might vie with the first of his age. He was invited to France, and during the three years that he resided there, obtained considerable celebrity in the court and in the kingdom at large. He was then engaged by Benedict XIII. to come to Rome, where he painted at the Minerva and at the Ara Coeli. He decorated other cities also with his works, particularly Genoa, which has two very valuable pictures by him at S. Girolamo; the one, that saint appearing and speaking to S. Saverio in a dream; the other, the Immaculate Conception with an angelic choir, as graceful as ever was painted. His home was, notwithstanding, in Naples, and that is the place where we ought to view him. He there decorated with his frescos the churches, galleries, halls, and ceilings in great number; often rivalling the celerity without attaining the merit of his master. It was his boast to have painted in sixty-six days a large cupola, that of the Gesù Nuovo, a few years since taken down in consequence of its dangerous state; a boast which, when Solimene heard, he sarcastically replied, that the work declared the fact itself without his mentioning it. Nevertheless there were so many beauties in it in the style of Lanfranco, that its rapid execution excited admiration. When he worked with care, as in the church of the Pii Operai, in the Matalona Gallery, and in many pictures for private individuals, he left nothing to desire, either in his composition, in the grace of his contour, in the beauty of his countenances, though there was little variety in the latter, or in any of the other estimable qualities of a painter. His colouring was at first _Giordanesque_; afterwards he painted with more force of chiaroscuro, but with a softness and delicacy of tint, particularly in the madonnas and children, where he sometimes displays the sweetness of Albano, and a trace of the Roman School, in which he had also studied. He was not very happy in his scholars, who were not numerous. Giuseppe Mastroleo is the most distinguished, who is much praised for his S. Erasmus at S. Maria Nuova. Gio. Batista Lama was a fellow disciple, and afterwards a relative of Matteis, and received some assistance from him in his studies. Excited by the example of Paolo, he attained a suavity of colour and of chiaroscuro, much praised in his larger works, as the gallery of the Duke of S. Niccola Gaeta, and particularly in his pictures of small figures in collections. In these he was fond of representing mythological stories, and they are not unfrequent in Naples and its territories.