While the studies on painting in Rome in the first three decades of the 17th century have elucidated the activities of many of the transalpine artists from France and Flanders who flocked to the papal capital, and the relations that linked them, much less is known about such foreign presences at Naples during the same period. Better known and studied is the case of the Flemish artists, united in a strong and compact colony in which the artists were linked not only by professional relations, but also by private and family ties. In the case of French artists, their individual personalities have been examined, without any attempt to investigate whether in their case too we can speak of a group linked by internal relations. One exception is that of artists from Lorraine: François de Nomé seems linked not only with his father–in–law, the Flemish painter Loise Croys, but also with other immigrants from Lorraine, even if not painters; the Metz–born Didier Barra is documented as permanently resident in Naples, while Claude Lorrain too stayed in the city for a few years after his arrival in Italy, working there with an artist identifiable with the Fleming Goffredo Wals. The Neapolitan archives contain documentation on a sizeable number of French artists, including painters, engravers and also a sculptor, Cristoforo Corset, who was active in the Cappella del Tesoro di San Gennaro and who realized the model for the bust of the poet Giovan Battista Marino in 1627 (Naples, San Domenico Maggiore). The French Caravaggesque painters seem to have been present in Naples more in the form of works sent down from Rome than in person (e.g. Simon Vouet): but some anonymous pictures with a secure Neapolitan provenance reveal characteristics that are more French than Italian, and invite a reconsideration of the question.