Born 1600/05 in Naples, where he died before 1670. He was active between 1630 and 1660. Forte is known above all from a passage in a book by De Dominici, who wrote biographies of Neapolitan artists, and from mentions in old inventories. In 1639 he is mentioned among the witnesses to the marriage contract of the painter Aniello Falcone, with whom he also collaborated. He signed only very few of his works, among them a still life in the Galleria Nazionale in Rome and one in the Ringling Museum in Sarasota (Florida, USA). Forte was one of the founders of the Neapolitan still life and the style of his work shows not only clear parallels with that of Giovanni Battista Caracciolo, but also reveals that he had studied Caravaggio and the Roman still life and that he was familiar with the Spanish bodegones. His determined and strong naturalism makes him one of the most attractive Neapolitan and generally Italian still-life painters. There has been a suggestion that Forte was of Spanish origin, but so far no documents to support this have been found.
Lit.: Seicento, Vol. II, Milano 1989 (biogr. Aurora Spinosa).