We have very little data on the Neapolitan painter Cusati; we know only that he was active in Naples and also in Palermo, and that he died in Naples in 1720. According to old sources he was a pupil of Giovanni Battista Ruoppolo. He depicted flowers, vegetables and in particular fish. These paintings are exclusively decorative in character, but they are often monumental: the best examples contain naturalistic details, which became a personal manner and a generalised repertoire.
Lit.: La natura morta in Italia, Editor Federico Zeri, Vol. I-II, Milano 1989 (Text: Antonella Casazza & Mario Rosci; Roberto Middione & Angela Tacce); Settecento, Vol. I-II, Milano 1990 (biogr. Aurora Spinosa).