Louis, one of the greatest modern architects, was born at Naples in 1700. He was of Flemish origin, his father being a native of Utrecht, who settled as a painter at Naples. He displayed precocious talents for painting, but at the age of twenty forsook that pursuit for architecture, which he then began to study, and in which he made astonishingly rapid progress. At the age of twenty-six he was appointed architect of St Peter's, and completed some of the decorations of that church; and from that time his reputation became such, that he had a share in almost all the great architectural works of the day. Vanvitelli's masterpiece is the palace of the King of Naples at Caserta, founded in 1752. It is an enormous building, and one of the finest of the kind in Europe. He also erected the pentagonal lazaretto at Ancona, and improved the harbour and defences of that town. He died at Caserta, March 1, 1773.