Vincenzo Balsamo was born on the 27th of June 1935 in Brindisi, the second of seven children.

In 1946 he loses his father, a sailor, following a work accident. This event plunges the family into economic ruin forcing Balsamo to leave his studies and look for work. He finds employment as an assistant in the artisan studio of the painter and decorator Pietro Acquaviva. Thanks to a number of jobs within local churches, Balsamo quickly gains a strong feel for retouching, he learns to recognise primary and secondary colours and all that is central to the pictorial medium; pigments, coloured ochres etc. This becomes of fundamental importance for his artistic future. Thanks to the maestro Acquaviva he discovers how a painting is born. Thus he begins to compose his first artworks, copying postcards, painting floral subjects, country views and houses.