CONGA, SEBASTIANO Italian painter of the Florentine school, was born at Gaeta, and studied at Naples under Francesco Solimena. In 1706, along with his brother Gio vanni, who acted as his assistant, he settled at Rome, where for several years he worked in chalk only, to improve his drawing. He was patronized by the Cardinal Ottoboni, who introduced him to Clement XI. ; and a "Jeremiah" painted in the church of St. John Lateran was rewarded by the pope with knighthood and by the cardinal with a diamond cross. Of his many pictures the "Probatica," or "Pool of Siloam," in the hospital of Santa Maria della Scala, at Siena, is considered the finest.