The “buen gusto romano” of the Viceroys
II. Christoph Schor and Francesco Solimena,
Standard-Bearers of Arcadian Taste in the Service of the Duke of Medinaceli 1
Jorge Fernández-Santos Ortiz-Iribas
Don Luis Francisco de la Cerda y Aragón, 9th Duke of Medlightened diplomats who took full advantage of the ease of cirinaceli and Spanish ambassador before the Holy See, wrote to
culation of graphic media. While it was hardly a new phenomenon, by the end of the seventeenth century it had, spurred by
the King of Spain backing the pretensions of the sculptor Girothe ever-expanding success of the Respublica Literaria, acquired
lamo Lucenti who expected to be rewarded handsomely for the
an unprecedented currency. A point in case, Louvois planned to
successful completion of the bronze statue of Philip IV at Sanpresent Sebastián de Villarreal y Gamboa, chief steward to the
ta Maria Maggiore. On top of a pension for his son Ambrogio,
Marquis del Carpio, with “livres d’Estampes” to thank him for
Lucenti anticipated the gift of a chain and a medallion with
tending to the Marquis de Souvré during the young nobleman’s
Charles II’s portrait, both to be executed in solid gold. The greater
stay in Naples 6.
“neatness of workmanship” of Italian artisans notwithstanding,
Seventeenth-century diplomatic correspondence incorpothe Council of State pointed out in the meeting of November
rated a full-range of epistolary exchanges between senior and
25th, 1692, that the Cavaliere Lucenti would be more flattered if
these tokens of royal appreciation were sent directly from the
junior officials as well as private and at times confidential let2
Spanish court rather than commissioned and minted in situ . To
ters that have not survived. When we are fortunate to have fairbe sure, the acknowledgment of Italian artistic superiority rely well preserved carteggi, it should not be overlooked that these
flected the diplomatic experience of several state councilors 3.
were customarily trimmed down and that all sorts of non-offiMoreover, the self-conscious
cial missives were almost inreference to Italian excellence
variably expunged. Spanish
in the context of an intended
ambassadors and viceroys in
royal gift to an Italian artist reItaly usually had trusted
veals the degree to which reagents in Madrid (such an ingal decorum was seen to dedividual was the erudite Juan
pend not only on munificence
Vélez de León for Medinaceli)
but also on taste. Whereas
whose presumably vast correCharles II’s good name respondence is nowhere to be
quired that the prize handed
found 7. Yet within the remaining corpus of extant offiover to Lucenti should not be
cial correspondence there retoo meagre compared to wellmains, often in the form of
publicized French precepost scripta or appended
dents 4, the members of the
Council of State implicitly renotes, fragmentary references
cognized that, no matter how
to artistic commissions that
high the intrinsic monetary
point to a fluid and far-reachvalue of the jewels, the level of
ing network, such as was the
workmanship would not go
one comprised by the Europeunnoticed in a Roman conwide array of viceroys, govertext. Although not mentioned
nors, ambassadors, consuls,
in the extant minutes of the
extraordinary envoys, and secConsejo de Estado, the golden
retaries that represented the
“medalla” was probably asinterests of the Spanish
sumed to be a round medalmonarchy abroad. Medilion with the Habsburg
naceli, like Carpio before him,
monarch’s bust molded in rerelied heavily on Spanish
5
lief . The episode rubberdiplomatic agents to run his
stamps the importance acerrands in places as far apart
quired by “good taste” as a
as Venice or London. The
source of diplomatic prestige
obliging Vicente Coléns,
in Rome and hints at the key
chargé d’affaires at the Spanrole in the dissemination of
ish embassy before the Most
Fig. 1. Antonio Lesma (oval painting) and Arnold van Audernaerd (engraving),
up-to-date artistic standards
Serene Republic, regularly inPortrait of Luis de la Cerda y Aragón, 9th Duke of Medinaceli (Rome 1696); engraving,
played by the handful of enformed Medinaceli’s Secretary
mm 191x280. Rome, Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica.
THE “BUEN GUSTO ROMANO” OF THE VICEROYS
221
of State, Diego Cabreros, of Jocent scholarly interest, Medihann Carl Loth’s painstaking and
naceli’s artistic patronage as
time-consuming painting of the
Spanish ambassador in Rome
martyred Saint Bartholomew on
(1687-96) and viceroy of Naples
canvas that the Viceroy had com(1696-1702) has been studied in
8
missioned . After several pentipiecemeal fashion, with the onus
menti and a year and a half of
placed, to the point of distortion,
procrastination 9, Coléns was reon his enthusiastic endorsement
lieved to write on July 13th, 1698,
of opera – a penchant which
to Cabreros, sending him a
contemporary accounts did not
drawing – presumably by Loth
fail to cast in a negative light as
himself – of the completed painta welcome venue for extramariing 10. Responding to Cabreros
tal liaisons with opera singers 20.
rd
His decisive contribution to the
on August 3 , Coléns gladly acknowledged the news that the
artistic history of the city and
“diseño” had pleased Medikingdom of Naples has remained
naceli 11. Later that year Coléns
obscured by what may be dewrote to Cabreros that Venetian
scribed as extraneous factors.
textile manufacturers had examThe fact that after the death of
ined the design sent from Naples
Charles II, last of the Spanish
along with the Viceroy’s order of
Habsburgs, Medinaceli regolden brocade. According to
mained loyal to Philip V, the new
their expert opinion, the sugFrench-born king, and that,
gested pattern was inordinately
moreover, he repressed fiercely
laborious and expensive to
the pro-Habsburg revolt of
weave for a fabric of only mod1701, not only alienated imperierate appearance 12. On March
al sources but allowed an abu21st 1699, Coléns sent drawings
sive misrepresentation of his
Fig. 2. Christoph Schor or workshop (?), Life-size drawing (recto and verso)
for four ornamental mirrors with
policies and personality, directly
of a commemorative silver medal by Jan Smeltzing in honor of William III
cut-glass frames, which met with
derived from ultramontane pamand Mary II (Rome 1688); ink and watercolour on paper, mm 220x315 (sheet),
mm
62
(medal
diameter).
Valladolid,
Archivo
General
de
Simancas.
Medinaceli’s approval although
phleteers, to take hold specially
some alterations to the original
after the conquest of Naples by
Venetian design may have been suggested in Naples 13. A highthe Austrians in 1707 21. Once back in Madrid, Medinaceli’s outspoken opposition to the excessive weight of French advisors
ly prestigious commission probably carried out by the mirrorin Philip V’s court did not help his historiographic fortunes
maker Giuseppe, it was destined to become an heirloom of the
among pro-Bourbon chroniclers and, indeed, his 1710 arrest on
Medinaceli household – and, not surprisingly, Medinaceli’s
14
unsubstantiated charges of high-treason and subsequent death
spokesman insisted that the design never be used again .
A collector of paintings by Guido Reni and Carlo Maratta,
in 1711 have cast a persistent shadow on one of the best inMedinaceli’s choices appear less eclectic and certainly more conformed and acutely intelligent defenders of what he termed “the
sistently classical than Carpio’s 15. While he possessed six paintSpanish system” of government in Italy 22.
A long and distinguished line of Neapolitan scholars have
ings by Luca Giordano (none of which he apparently commisbrought about a far-reaching reassessment of Spanish policies
sioned), he owned an equal number by Poussin or his disciples,
in Naples after Masaniello’s 1649 revolt, paying particular atno less than 16 by or after Reni, and 9 bearing an attribution to
tention to their cultural implications in a historical context
Maratta, Crescimbeni’s exemplary painter. Significantly, he apmarked by the ascendancy of the middle legal class, or “ceto
parently owned no paintings by either Paolo De Matteis or Giamedio” 23. Medinaceli himself acknowledged that on all signifcomo del Po 16. Two other painters present in Medinaceli’s colicant matters he depended upon the lawyers as the only group
lection, heretofore misidentified, were Henri Gascar and the
capable of mediating effectively between the nobility and the
above-discussed, Johann Carl Loth, proving further Medinaceli’s
people 24. No less significant was his private admission that he
contacts with the French academic milieu in Rome and with
17
nd
cared little whether he was branded as “impious” in Rome or
Venice . On September 2 , 1698, Cardinal Francesco Maria de’
Medici wrote from Pratolino acknowledging Medinaceli’s letter
not 25. His 1696 portrait by the Neapolitan painter Anton Les18
asking for the services of Luigi Garzi , whose frescoes at Sanma, engraved by Robert van Audenaerd, proves revealing in
ta Caterina a Formiello in Naples had been unveiled on Octothis respect (fig. 1) 26. Like the Marquis del Carpio but unlike
ber 6th of the previous year. As is well known, the viceroy wished
his predecessor the Count of Santisteban or his successor the
Garzi to paint the Stanza del Belvedere at the Palazzo Reale.
Duke of Escalona, Medinaceli arrived in Naples with a very
Cardinal De’ Medici wrote to the Archbishop of Pisa then in
substantial Roman background. In reality, he had discharged
Rome asking him to forward the viceroy’s request and his own
duties as ambassador before the Holy See for almost nine years,
plea to the painter to accept the commission 19.
the longest lasting embassy since the Duke of Sessa’s, which
Indeed, if exposure to Italian and, more specifically, Rohad ended in 1603. If the two versions of the engraved portrait
man art was at the time a litmus test for aesthetic refinement,
of the Marquis del Carpio by Philipp Schor, Giuseppe PinacLuis de la Cerda, whose Italian sojourn extended from 1685 to
ci, and Arnold van Westerhout were designed to fulfill a dou1702, must have counted among Spain’s keenest aristocratic conble role, at once valedictory and inaugural, as he prepared to
noisseurs. Overshadowed by the Marquis del Carpio, whose libabandon Rome and head for Naples 27, Medinaceli’s single 1696
eral collecting and appetite for flamboyant pageantry draws reportrait, also engraved at the crucial moment in which he made
222
JORGE FERNÁNDEZ-SANTOS ORTIZ-IRIBAS
arrangements to leave Rome as newly appointed viceroy of
Naples, was shorn of all paraphernalia. The oval painting by
Antonio Lesma after which the engraved portrait was based
was destined to function as a sort of “official portrait” with
which the newly appointed viceroy wished to present himself
to the Neapolitans. An unmistakable Roman product, notwithstanding the fact that Lesma was Neapolitan by birth, the oval
likeness is by far the finest example extant among the handful
of Lesma’s accomplished, if somewhat conventional, portraits
to have been engraved 28. The simplicity of the frame, enhanced
by Audenaerd’s finesse in highlighting its volumetric starkness,
directs our attention to the coat-of-arms – itself a hardly neutral fact for the sitter’s Castilian, Aragonese, and French lines
of royal descent were proudly represented by lions, castles, eagles, bars, and fleurs-de-lis – and to the self-assured demeanor
of the Duke himself. If Carpio chose the traditional Spanish attire, with the characteristic ruff or golilla, Medinaceli chose to
emphasize his new status as Captain General of the Neapolitan Kingdom wearing armor, as did previous viceroys, including his immediate predecessor the Count of Santisteban 29. But
while Santisteban’s use of a dark wig is somewhat diluted by
the assertive presence of his armor and, in the background, the
Neapolitan dockyard and defensive outposts, Medinaceli opted for a white wig, sash, and cascading gorgeret, thus calling
attention to the Frenchness of his attire. As reminded by Ferdinando Bologna, the predilection for French fashion in late
Seicento Naples was associated with those unfairly typecast as
“ateisti” and libertines by backward sectors of Neapolitan society which viewed suspiciously the activity of the highly educated minority responsible for turning Naples 30, as Jonathan Israel has recently insisted upon, into one of the most vibrant
cultural capitals of Europe as the seventeenth century drew to
a close 31. Santisteban, during the highly publicized processo degli
ateisti, had only very reluctantly caved in to some of the demands of the Church. Medinaceli was acutely aware of the
adamant and traditional opposition of the City of Naples to papal wishes of establishing the Holy Inquisition in its territory
– longstanding ecclesiastical aspirations which had gained momentum in 1691 with the election of a Neapolitan pontiff, Innocent XII Pignatelli. Medinaceli’s choice of costume, especially
if we take into account Lesma’s portrait became the prototype
for the new viceroy’s image in Italy and abroad 32, was hardly
innocent and bespeaks of his desire to send a clear signal to the
City of Naples that, in keeping with the orientation of Carpio
and, even more so, Santisteban, he intended to back the intellectuals of the “ceto medio” and fend off jurisdictional encroachments from the Holy See. Indeed, Medinaceli, while ambassador in Rome, had developed an ability to invest fashion
statements with political significance. Pope Innocent XI
Odescalchi received news of the overthrow of James II after
the “Glorious Revolution” of 1688 with dismay as a setback for
Catholicism. Medinaceli, then styled Marquis of Cogolludo, was
eager, on the other hand, to make it known in Rome that he
saw the advent of the Protestant William and Mary as auspicious. Indeed, Spanish policy-making depended greatly on an
anti-French military alliance with England, which could not be
hoped for while the Francophile James II remained on the
throne. As soon as the first of Jan Smeltzing’s 1688 commemorative medals of William and Mary arrived in Rome for Christina of Sweden, Medinaceli rushed to have a drawing of it made
at Palazzo Riario in order to send it to Madrid (fig. 2) 33. At a
later point, in 1692, Medinaceli on behalf of his wife requested the Spanish ambassador in London send him detailed, upto-date descriptions of Mary II’s dress and hairstyle. The Marquis de Canales sent to Rome a recent engraving but acknowledged the etching did not show the back of the monarch’s hairdo and perhaps he should best send a dressed-up doll.34 Evidently Medinaceli relished the stir his wife would cause dressed
à la anglaise in a city which continued to bemoan the accession
of William and Mary to the British throne.
Fig. 3. Christoph Schor (design and drawing) and Arnold van Audernaerd (engraving), Festive decorations in honor of
Marie-Louise d’Orléans, Queen of Spain (detail showing the amphitheatre). Rome, Piazza di Spagna, August 25th 1687;
engraving, mm 300x1245 (350x1265 inclusive of text). Stockholm, Kunglike Biblioteket.
THE “BUEN GUSTO ROMANO” OF THE VICEROYS
223
Fig. 4 (a) (b). Diego de Saavedra Fajardo (design concept), Johann Sadeler The Younger (engraving), Excæcat candor (a) and Lumine solis (b) (Munich 1640); engravings,
mm 114x146 and 114x147. Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de España.
The Tedeschino and the Ambasciatore Incognito Turned
Viceroy
Arriving in Rome on July 3rd, 1687, Don Luis de la Cerda,
who was to turn twenty-seven in a month, was deemed by many,
if not most, inadequately young to become Spanish ambassador
before the Holy See. In spite of never making an official entry
into the city and maintaining for almost a decade an ambiguous
status as “ambasciatore incognito”, he staged two of the most
relevant festivities of the period. This odd unofficial status was
due to Spanish unwillingness to sanction Innocent XI’s seizure
of the Spanish quartiere around the Palazzo di Spagna, unless
the French did not surrender the extraterritoriality of their own
quartiere comprising Piazza Farnese and its environs. Perhaps,
owing to the fact that the yearly tribute known as the “chinea”
could not be presented to the Pope by an ambassador who chose
to forego a solemn entry into the city, Luis de la Cerda sought
a rather unusual way to mark his arrival in Rome. Just as the
former ambassador and present Viceroy of Naples, the Marquis
del Carpio, relied on Philipp Schor’s scenographical skills, his
successor turned for ideas to his younger brother and collaborator Christoph, who had remained in Rome with his widowed
mother while his elder brother followed Don Gaspar de Haro
to Naples 35. The collaboration between the ambassador and
Christoph Schor “il tedeschino”, Giovanni Paolo Tedesco’s
youngest son, was to become as intense as the one that had bound
his brother Philipp to the Marquis del Carpio. Defeating longestablished conventions, Christoph Schor erected on Piazza
Mignanelli directly opposite the Palazzo di Spagna a semicircular amphitheater where musicians and singers were put on
display facing the audience (fig. 3). The serenade was to take
place on the day of Saint Louis (August 25th) to mark the saint’s
day of the Spanish queen, Marie-Louise d’Orléans, Louis XIV’s
224
niece 36. Several ill-meaning informants reported to Madrid that
Medinaceli’s apparato looked so French as to have been designed
in Paris 37. Surely, the prominence of the sun and the fleurs-delis could be read as an implicit homage to the Sun King.
Christoph Schor’s theater, however, was in fact devised according to a vastly different political agenda. Topping the two archways to either side of the orchestra, Schor placed two carefully
chosen emblems held by pairs of angels (fig. 4). In fact, both
were taken from Diego Saavedra Fajardo’s 1640 Idea de un
príncipe político-cristiano. The emblem to the left, Excæcat candor, number XII of Saavedra’s hundred, was intended to emphasize the power of truth to dispel falsehood and, more specifically, to vindicate the Spanish monarchy against the slander
spread by its foes 38. To the right, Lumine solis referred to the
borrowed light that moonlike ministers received from their solar sovereign. In his long interpretation of emblem XLIX, Saavedra outlined the many risks which awaited monarchs willing to
relinquish power in the hands of unworthy ministers. Yet, Saavedra pointed out, highborn and zealous ministers were uniquely
apt to share the burden of government 39. It would appear Luis
de la Cerda, as son and heir of the 8th Duke of Medinaceli,
Charles II’s prime minister removed from power two years earlier, chose both emblems to vindicate his father’s political legacy. The message was not intended to be cryptic nor were the
fleurs-de-lis of the French-born Spanish Queen to be read as
evidence of francophilia. Rather, Medinaceli used the opportunity to send a message to Madrid and to Rome, namely that he
was to remain steadfast in proclaiming his father’s good name.
Schor’s architectonic language was not only emphatically
Roman, but clearly akin to Carlo Fontana’s preference for distinct geometrical shapes. The twelve atlantes holding up potted
plants, the background of vegetation, the eleven round arches
framing eleven fountains, the subdued heraldry, the absence of
JORGE FERNÁNDEZ-SANTOS ORTIZ-IRIBAS
Fig. 5 (a) (b). Unidentified draftsman, Schematic drawing of the teatro rustico where the Accademia dell’Arcadia gathers at the Orti Farnesiani, Rome, ca. 1700 (a) and
Dragrammatic rendering of an assembly of the Accademia dell’Arcadia at the Giardino Giustiniani Rome, 1705 (b); ink on white paper. Rome, Biblioteca Angelica.
ornamental display and, most important of all, the simplicity of
the scheme allying nature and antiquity bespeak of Fontana’s
highly calculated sobering of Bernini’s lesson 40. Indeed, the
iconographic conspicuousness of the orchestral ensemble, believed to be Arcangelo Corelli’s, the recourse to real fountains
set off against a garden-like pavilion, inserting as it were a teatro
di verzura into the urban fabric, may be fairly described as Arcadian architecture ante litteram. Even if the implicit jurisdictional claim over the ambassadorial quartiere was by 1687 entirely futile, Christoph borrowed from his brother Philipp’s work
for the Marquis del Carpio the idea of distributing candles and
torches to the dwellers of Piazza di Spagna to enhance the visibility of the square at night 41. We lack, as was the case for the
Marquis del Carpio, printed opuscules recounting the ambassador’s feats in a heroic mold, but there is reason to suspect, albeit in a less publicized fashion, the mark the “ambasciatore incognito” left on the Roman scene. The noted diarist Carlo Cartari described a horse-drawn triumphal chariot adorned with
laurels and crowned by a live eagle, with Turks in chains at the
feet of four victorious commanders 42. Intended as the Spanish
ambassador’s commemoration of Margrave Ludwig Wilhelm of
Baden’s resounding victory over the Ottomans at Slankamen on
August 19th, 1691, the chariot was driven on September 16th from
Piazza di Spagna to the imperial ambassador’s residence and
back. The pyrotechnic finale at the Piazza di Spagna of the “bellissimo carro trionfale”, in keeping with the proven expertise of
the Schor atelier in climactic fireworks, may suggest Christoph
Schor’s authorship.
Strong formal and conceptual ties exist between Schor’s Piazza di Spagna celebrations of 1687 and 1688 and apparati staged
in Naples during Medinaceli’s viceroyalty. On 15 July 1696 Medinaceli arranged for a serenade authored by Francesco Maria
Paglia with a musical score by Alessandro Scarlatti to be staged
in the Palazzo de’ Gennaro di Cantalupo at Posillipo, which had
been used for similar private rejoicings by the Marquis del Carpio 43. Shortly after, Philipp and Christoph Schor built a large
amphitheater for a musical entertainment in honor of Queen
Marianne of Neuburg’s name day entitled, Il Trionfo delle Stagioni, also by Paglia and Scarlatti. Placed directly opposite the
main façade of the royal palace, the amphitheater was oval in
plan – “un perfettissimo ovato” according to the printed avvisi
THE “BUEN GUSTO ROMANO” OF THE VICEROYS
– and incorporated several superposed tiers, including various
rows for the musicians 44. If the 1687 Roman theater accommodated 63 instrumentalists and 5 singers, in the 1696 Neapolitan
version their ranks were raised to a staggering 150 instrument
players and an impressive choral ensemble of 50 voices. Playful
puttini, fruit and flower garlands, a crowning piece made of
twelve Doric columns of circa 5 meters in height, candelabra,
statues, a 150 meter perimeter palisade punctuated by seven large
gates, 700 torches, and 200 crystal lamps outline a structure
whose cogent architectural syntax echoed closely – albeit on a
larger scale – the 1687 amphitheater. Other ephemera from the
Medinaceli period, for which we sadly lack images, allied music and nature in unmistakable Arcadian terms, blending in with
what Giulia Fusconi has described as a distinctive trait of
Neapolitan apparati, which used to the fullest advantage, both
as backdrop and stage, the city’s privileged seashore landscape 45.
One may mention the “teatro boscareccio” staged at the Sala
Regia on November 11th 1696 or the boscareccia at the Cantalupo
palace that took place on August 15th, 1700, described by then
as the “consaputa boscareccia” 46. A few days earlier, on August
5th, the vicereine’s birthday was celebrated, again in the Cantalupo residence at Mergellina, with the “comedia boscareccia”
Dafni set to music by Alessandro Scarlatti 47. The Abbot Paglia
authored the libretto for the “favola boschereccia” to honor the
vicereine’s next birthday, entitled, Il pastor di Corinto and, as
usual, performed at the Cantalupo casino at Mergellina 48. Besides this series of private courtly gatherings in the form of bucolic musical pastimes by the seaside, Medinaceli had to provide for the highly public apparati associated with the reigning
king and queen. On October 20th, 1696, the Largo di Palazzo
was turned into a “floridissimo giardino” on the occasion of
Charles II’s recovered health 49. Although the giornale omits the
architect’s identity, the presence of a background trellis, flower
pots, 12 statues, 5 fountains, and 4 pyramids brings to mind
Christoph Schor’s penchant for distinct volumes and clear-cut
shapes placed within an orderly arrangement. In fact, the pageant of 25th July, 1697, at Largo di Palazzo in honor of Queen
Marianne of Neuburg – attributed to the “celebre Architetto
Sig. Christofalo Schor” – incorporated a perimeter trellis fence
with arched openings, fountains, statues, potted flowers, and
pyramids, elements that were a staple of Schor’s festive vocab-
225
Fig. 6. Christoph Schor (design), Francesco De Grado (engraving), Scenography in honour of Empress Elisabeth Christine
of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel’s birthday. Naples, Largo di Palazzo, August 28th, 1713; engraving, mm 280x425. Naples,
Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III.
Fig. 7. Philipp Schor, based on a plan drawn in situ by Bartolomeo Matino, Plan of the sanitary cordon sealing off pestilent
areas in the province of Bari (Naples 1691); ink and watercolour on paper, mm 425x568 (framed area mm 390x545).
Valladolid, Archivo General de Simancas.
ulary and were intended to provide an amenable setting for the
center-stage invenzione, which that year happened to be Armida’s enchanted palace 50. Huge makeshift stockades lined with
boxes were raised on an almost yearly basis for equestrian parades and tournaments to solemnize Charles II’s birthday on November 6th, such as the one designed jointly by Christoph Schor
and the engineer Luca Antonio de Natale in 1697 51. Far more
innovative was the feast that took place on the day of Saint Anne
1698 52. To showcase the new seafront promenade at Chiaia,
Schor conceived of a palisade of greenery stretching for a mile
with a triumphal arch at either end. 42 arch openings, 12 foun-
226
tains, 30 pyramids, and 3 palazzini that rose over 20 meters, were
interspersed to enliven the course of the palisade. Likewise to
commemorate the reigning queen’s name day, in 1700 Schor took
full advantage of the Chiaia seaside designing an apparato in the
form of a semicircular harbor. A pier, upon which rested a castle, jutted out to the sea while 16 pyramids lined the shore.
Christoph Schor developed a personal approach to ephemeral
architecture, one which highlighted, on the one hand, the bounties of nature by means of flowers, plants, fruits, and running
water and, on the other hand, put forward a highly rational repertoire of pristine geometrical forms, such as the semicircle and
JORGE FERNÁNDEZ-SANTOS ORTIZ-IRIBAS
the pyramid 53. It is surely striking that the scant visual records
which survive from the early meetings of the Accademia dell’Arcadia in Rome (fig. 5) evince a sort of simplicity, wedding
“pristina natura” and “prisca geometria” 54, akin to Schor’s own
vocabulary, as may be reconstructed from the scant surviving
engravings from his Roman period (fig. 3), or from his late
Neapolitan production (fig. 6).
Surely, the paucity of visual records from Medinaceli’s sixyear government is disappointing but hardly surprising. All the
drawings by Philipp Schor identified so far by Giulia Fusconi
date from his Roman period 55. This author has found two signed
drawings by Philipp Schor, one from his Spanish period 56 and
a second one datable to his Neapolitan years (1683-1697), which
is a beautifully rendered plan outlining the sanitary cordon implemented in the province of Bari to isolate areas hit by the
plague (fig. 7) 57. Remarkable for Schor’s painstaking attention
to cartographic detail, the 1691 plan was festooned by a dangling cloth tied with flimsy ribbons and a windswept Cross of
Burgundy flag, all of which give us some idea of Schor’s graphic style, of his efficient use of light watercolor wash to convey
rippling fabrics. Faring even worse than his elder brother, no
single drawing has thus far been identified as a sure autograph
by Christoph Schor, whether Roman or Neapolitan 58. Moreover,
it is not only vexing but puzzling to realize that Medinaceli, who
commissioned in Rome a lavishly illustrated book to record the
epoch-making Caduta del Regno dell’Amazzoni staged at the Galleria Colonna in 1690 with twelve superb scenes conceived by
Girolamo Fontana 59, should have neglected to hire skilled engravers in Naples to document the series of theatrical events and
celebrations which were quite obviously commissioned and intended to bolster and publicize his status as discerning and forward-looking patron of the arts – with the single exception of
the funeral decorations at the Carmine Maggiore for Medinaceli’s
mother, the Duchess of Segorbe, recorded in two etchings in-
Fig. 8. Philipp and Christoph Schor (design), Catafalque in
honor of Catalina Antonia de Aragón, 8th Duchess of Segorbe,
Naples, Carmine Maggiore, 26th April, 1697; engraving,
mm 227x375. Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de España.
THE “BUEN GUSTO ROMANO” OF THE VICEROYS
serted into a commemorative book (fig. 8) 60. Although the avvisi
credit Christoph Schor with the design, I have argued in a monographic study devoted to the 1697 Pompe funerali that his brother Philipp must have contributed as well 61. Apart from the extraordinary implications of the memorial service and the book
issued from it, which I have discussed elsewhere, the stark, minimalist catafalque deserves to be seen as a startlingly forceful
embodiment of the rationalist, sobering stance dear to the Accademia dell’Arcadia. In line with the neo-cinquecentismo, which
according to Sandro Benedetti, characterized Carlo Fontana’s
architecture 62, one may draw comparisons between Schor’s pyramid and pedestal and Agostino and Sigismondo Chigi’s tombs
at Santa Maria del Popolo by Raphael (begun 1513), or the more
recent mausoleum of Agostino Favoriti at Santa Maria Maggiore
by Ludovico Gimignani and Filippo Carcani (ca. 1685). Echoes
of Bernini’s celebrated catafalque for the duke of Beaufort at
Santa Maria in Aracoeli (1669), while apparent, were nonetheless divested of dramatic tension. We can be sure Schor’s design made an impact upon turn-of-the-century Naples. Alba Cappellieri argued Ferdinando Sanfelice’s 1720 façade for the funeral at San Lorenzo Maggiore for Empress Eleonora was modeled after Schor’s 1697 catafalque 63, known to her only through
giornale descriptions 64. The etching proves Cappellieri right but
also highlights Schor’s resolute emphasis on austere, essential
volumes, anticipating the obeliscus Wratislavianus of 1715 by his
one-time collaborator Fischer von Erlach (fig. 9) 65. Even the incredibly tall, phitomorphic candelabra to either side of the pyramid remain subordinated to a straightforward underlying geometrical pattern, a modus operandi which may be traced back
to work carried out in the Schor workshop in the 1680s, or forward to the memorial in honor of Carlo Di Sangro and Giuseppe
Capece at San Domenico a decade later (fig. 10) 66. While Medinaceli’s patronage of Ferdinando and Francesco Bibiena and
Gaspar van Wittel have commanded more attention, Christoph
Fig. 9. Johann Berhard Fischer von Erlach (design) and unidentified
engraver, Tomb and truncated obelisk erected in memory of Count
Jakob Wenzel Wratislaw von Mitrowitz. Kostel svatèho Jakuba, Prague,
1715; engraving. Barcelona, Biblioteca Nacional de Catalunya.
227
Schor’s ephemera, in spite of the scarcity of images, perhaps exemplify best the wholehearted commitment of the viceroy to the
Arcadian neutralization of Baroque rhetoric.
The very same day Medinaceli arrived in Naples as new
viceroy, on March 20th, 1696, the members of the Accademia
dell’Arcadia met in a Congregazione Generale in Rome to declare him àrcade acclamato by name Arconte Frisseo 67. His trusted cameriere maggiore, the learned Juan Bautista de Villarreal
y Gamboa, had joined Crescimbeni’s assembly as early as 1692 68.
Pompeo Azzolini, a close confidante who accompanied Medinaceli to Naples in 1696, was among the Arcadia’s earliest members (1691) and had granted to Crescimbeni and his nascent
academy the use of the gardens of Palazzo Riario for their meetings 69. The erudite scholar Manuel Martí y Zaragoza (1694), the
Prince of Santobuono (1695), the Prince of Ottaiano (1691),
and the writers Silvio Stampiglia (1690) and Giuseppe Domenico de Totis (1691) may be mentioned among many other influential members of the Accademia dell’Arcadia within the
viceroy’s entourage 70. Crescimbeni reserved pride of place to
Medinaceli’s portrait in the academy’s Serbatoio, alongside his
successor as viceroy of Naples, the duke of Escalona 71. Given
Medinaceli’s close ties with the Arcadia in Rome, it would not
be far-fetched to imagine that his personal architect and scenographer, Christoph Schor, would have assimilated so early and
thoroughly the new poetics of rationality. Cappellieri rightly
called into question Franco Mancini’s reference to Schor’s
“maniera piuttosto semplicistica” 72. In fact, we may speak more
properly about a deliberate toning down of Baroque theatricality, to borrow Ludovico Zorzi’s terms, which may be aligned
with the highly symptomatic late Seicento “crisi del melodramma” 73. We know that in the very first years of its existence, the
Accademia dell’Arcadia, founded in 1690, enforced an egalitarian circular seating arrangement, which to the dismay of the
above-mentioned memorialist Carlo Cartari, disposed of every
notion of decorum, requiring participants to sit on the grass 74.
Although the members of Medinaceli’s Accademia Palatina,
founded in 1698, were granted the benefit of chairs in their long
sessions at the Neapolitan Palazzo Reale, we know the viceroy
himself sat within the circle among the scholars, with no outward signs of his rank, while courtiers stood to the sides regardless of their social standing 75. Indeed, visual evidence proclaimed the viceroy’s allegiance to the new style, which combined an undermining of traditional ceremonial barriers coupled with the lavish theatricals and courtly opulence previously popularized by Pietro Ottoboni in Rome 76.
Although Medinaceli left Naples in February 28th, 1702, he
must be credited with many of the wide-ranging preparations
for Philip V’s sojourn in the city in April and May. It should not
come as a surprise to learn that the important commission of
the three state coaches for the arrival of the new king was entrusted to the resourceful tedeschino. A long list of drawings executed by Schor in various scales and for various purposes, including colored ones “in foglio reale”, gives us a rare insight into the crucial role of design in his versatile workshop 77. The design of a “carrozza nobile alla romana”, a “frullone nobile a stufa”, and a “carrozza a stufa alla francese” demanded not only a
considerable number of drawings but also Schor’s uninterrupted supervision of every detail over two months. Down to his
very last commissions, prior to his departure, Medinaceli relied
on Schor’s trusted architectural and ornamental language, and
in spite of the limited engravings available to us, must have played
a key role in the consolidation, closely paralleling contemporary
Roman developments, of what may be described as a “stagione
arcadica” of courtly taste.
Solimena and the Allegory of History between Dynasties
Fig. 10 (a) (b). Philipp Schor and workshop, Ornamental letters and decorative frame
(Rome 1681 and possibly 1682); ink and watercolor on paper. Valladolid, Archivio
General de Simancas and London, Society of Antiquaries. (c) (d). Cristoph Schor.
Details of candelabra (cfr. fig. 8) (Naples 1697 and 1708); engraving. Madrid, Biblioteca
Nacional de España and Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III.
228
Exactly half a century ago, in his seminal monograph on
Francesco Solimena, Ferdinando Bologna argued convincingly
for the role of the Arcadia and its anti-Baroque poetics in bringing about a turning point in the painter’s career around 1690 78.
Medinaceli’s patent involvement with the Accademia dell’Arcadia could have only contributed to consolidate the Arcadian,
classicist movement in Naples after 1696. For one, in a confidential 1696 letter to the marquis of Villafranca, Medinaceli decried Giordano’s nepotistic ways, stating with “his colors [he]
erases all the knowledge and good dispositions of those that are
not his sons-in-law” – a statement in which aesthetic and ethic
reproof seem to go hand in hand 79. Moreover, the turn of phrase
is startling, as it seems to echo the arguments of contemporary
advocates of line over color, as if Giordano’s dazzling palette
were to blame not only for “erasing” the merits of those who
were not his kinsmen, but also disegno itself. Contrariwise, the
presence of a painting described as “different figures that enhance a medal” by Francesco Solimena in Medinaceli’s inventory of paintings points to the viceroy’s appreciation of the
painter 80.
Letters published by Andrea Caravita and De Dominici’s
account led Bologna to identify the Allegory of Catherine II now
at the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg as the original, albeit transformed, painting commissioned from Solimena by the nunzio
in Paris, Filippo Antonio Gualtieri, to honor Louis XIV, which
JORGE FERNÁNDEZ-SANTOS ORTIZ-IRIBAS
Fig. 11. Francesco Solimena, Allegorical portrait of Prince Josef Ferdinand of Bavaria (?). Private
collection.
Fig. 12. Francesco Solimena, Allegorical portrait of Tommaso d’Aquino, 5th Prince of Castiglione di
Calabria (?). Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale.
was still being painted in 1701 81. Ferdinando Bologna, Andrea
Emiliani, Wolfgang Prohaska, and Mario Alberto Pavone have
published four considerably smaller and closely related versions
with a lesser number of allegorical figures, which were also disposed, as is the case with the Hermitage canvas, about a central
medallion 82. Seemingly, besides the Allegory of Louis XIV for
Gualtieri, Solimena was involved in a series of small-format allegories of rule carried out shortly before and after the dynastic change of 1700, a historical period overlapping precisely with
Medinaceli’s government.
The many versions are of varying pictorial merits, but prove
the importance acquired by Solimena’s allegorical compositions
in turn-of-the-century Naples. It is important, however, to single out the vertical painting commissioned by Gualtieri. The
“1690” date detected in a highly unusual place does not seem
trustworthy to Bologna 83, who would rather stick to 1700-01 as
the most likely date for the extant painting. It must be emphasized that such a conspicuous allegorical scheme in honor of a
THE “BUEN GUSTO ROMANO” OF THE VICEROYS
sovereign with whom Spain was at war was simply unthinkable
in 1690 by a prominent Neapolitan painter like Solimena who,
moreover, was highly esteemed by the viceroy 84. Given that in
1690 Charles II wed Marianne of Neuburg, it would not be farfetched to think Solimena may have attempted a large canvas to
mark the royal marriage, perhaps one commissioned by the
Count of Santisteban 85. But Bologna’s reservations about the
1690 date, I believe, are well founded. Although the features of
the central character displayed on the preparatory sketch for
the Hermitage painting, housed in the Albertina, are too hazy
to be identified, it is clear from the prominence of the wig and
the general outline of the body that it is not Charles II of Spain 86.
In fact, the close resemblance between the Albertina drawing
and the painting for Gualtieri, leads one to assume both were
probably executed in short succession in ca. 1700-01. In addition, the mention of a 1690 version is conspicuously absent from
the account of the otherwise exceptionally well-informed De
Dominici 87.
229
At some point after 1690 – perhaps as late as 1696 – Solimena must have thought up a new type of allegorical composition related to Spanish rule in Naples (fig. 11) 88. It was at once
simple and powerful, consisting of a portrait medallion surrounded by three allegorical figures: a defeated, recumbent
Chronos (Time); Hispania-Minerva (Wisdom and Fortitude) 89
pointing to the portrait bust; and Clio (History) caught in the
act of writing. In the absence of supportive evidence to confirm
the existence of a more ambitious royal allegory as early as 1690,
Solimena’s clear-cut tripartite allegory, in vogue in the very last
years of seventeenth-century Naples, among the city’s cultural
and political elite, was the basis for the elaborate and populated 1701 allegory commissioned by Gualtieri, and not the other
way around. The presence in the four extant horizontal-format
paintings of Spain’s heraldic lion, as well as, the clearly recognizable outline of the Castel Nuovo in the background – substituted in the enlarged and expanded vertical composition in
1700-01 with a non-specific fortress 90 – suggests they were conceived as allegories of Spanish rule in Naples. The small paintings located at the National Gallery, London, at the Pinacoteca
Nazionale at Bologna, and in two private collections 91 are almost identical versions, with Hispania-Minerva, Clio, and
Chronos disposed about a portrait medallion. Curiously, the version at the National Gallery displays a blank, unfinished oval,
perhaps an indication this was to serve as a workshop prototype
of a fairly popular theme with Solimena’s clients 92. The three remaining paintings present the central figure in various ways. The
version published by Prohaska displays a central gilt medallion
with a high-relief bust of Charles II framed by palms of triumph 93. The painting, bereft of funeral connotations and congratulatory in scope, should be dated before Charles II’s death
on November 1st, 1700 94, and it may be arguably related to the
celebrations orchestrated in 1696 after the news of Charles II’s
recovered health reached Naples, an occasion seized upon by
the Neapolitan intelligentsia (to which Solimena belonged) to
curry favor with the new viceroy.
The initial identification of Prince Eugene of Savoy in the
version in Bologna (fig. 12) has been rightly rejected, but the
actual subject remains elusive 95. On the basis of engraved portraits it is possible to identify the central bust in grisaille as that
of Tommaso d’Aquino, 5th Prince of Castiglione di Calabria, an
acutely intelligent and well-educated nobleman, who attained
prominence during the successive viceroyalties of Carpio, Santisteban, Medinaceli, and Escalona. He was in very good terms
with Solimena (whom he introduced to Philip V in Naples) 96
and with the Duke of Medinaceli, to whose good offices he partly owed the grandeeship bestowed upon him and his issue ad
perpetuitatem by Charles II in 1699 97. Given that the sitter appears aged, respective of his 1687 nuptial portrait and somewhat closer to the 1699 portrait reproduced in Giannettasi’s Bellica (fig. 13) 98 – and assuming the identification proposed here
is correct – the painting was perhaps intended to mark the prince
of Castiglione’s newly gained nobiliary status 99.
The version in a private Neapolitan collection, published
by Pavone, represents a child in armor who, according to both
Bologna and Pavone, would represent the features of Philip V
of Spain, born at Versailles on December 19th, 1683 (fig. 11) 100.
It would be hard to image a painter so well connected with
the viceregal court – we know Solimena portrayed Medinaceli
and his vicereine 101 – would take the step to portray a French
prince against a backdrop presided by the Angevin and
Aragonese stronghold of Castel Nuovo, an architectural emblem of royal power in Naples, before the terms of Charles II’s
will, naming Philip his universal heir, came to be known in the
Fig. 13. Unidentified draftsman and Andrea Magliar (engraver), Portrait
of Tommaso d’Aquino, 5th Prince of Castiglione di Calabria (Naples
1699); engraving, mm 139x86. Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de España.
Fig. 14. Francesco Solimena, (design); Francesco Faraone Aquila (engraver),
Allegory of Philip V as King of Naples, after a likeness by Hyacinthe Rigaud (Naples
1701); engraving, mm 265x310. Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de España.
230
JORGE FERNÁNDEZ-SANTOS ORTIZ-IRIBAS
Fig. 15. Henri Gascar (painter); Josef Anton Zimmermann (engraver), Portrait of
Prince Josef Ferdinand of Bavaria (Munich 1773); engraving, mm 257x183. Madrid,
Biblioteca Nacional de España.
Fig. 16. Joseph Vivien, Portrait of Prince Josef Ferdinand of Bavaria (possibly Brussels
ca. 1698); pastel on paper, cm 168x1230. Berchtesgaden, Königliches Schloß
(Munich, Wittelsbacher Ausgleichsfonds).
Parthenopean capital 102. We also know that, after being introduced by Castiglione, Solimena painted the portrait of Philip
V from life in Naples sometime between May 15th and June 2nd,
1702 103. Moreover, Solimena’s patron, the Duke of Medinaceli,
was insistently requesting, perhaps as soon as November
1700 104, a good likeness of the new French-born king from the
Marquis of Castelldosrius, Spanish ambassador in Paris, one
which must have reached Naples in the summer of 1701 or
shortly after 105. In March 1701 it was still unfinished, since the
painter to whom Castelldosrius addressed the commission, Hyacinthe Rigaud, was busy finishing the full-length portrait of
Philip V ordered by Louis XIV 106. In fact, we can be sure the
requested portrait arrived thanks to a beautiful engraving by
Francesco Aquila, based on a drawing by Solimena executed
after the said portrait (fig. 14). A legend on the lower left declares unambiguously the king’s portrait was drawn from the
“ritratto originale venuto a questo Eccellentissimo Signor
Viceré”. In fact, it is highly probable Solimena drew the oval
portrait displayed in the engraving in late 1701, on the basis
of an original painting (or possibly a copy issued from Rigaud’s
atelier) 107 sent from Paris to Medinaceli. What is more, the documented presence in and departure from Naples of the engraver Francesco Aquila support a late 1701 date for the etching 108. In addition, the engraving can be connected not only to
Medinaceli, who had commissioned the Parisian likeness, but
also to one of the select Neapolitan noblemen that belonged
to his intimate circle 109. The dedication to Tommaso d’Aquino,
Prince of Castiglione, styled as grandee of Spain but not yet
as general of the Neapolitan Cavalry 110, further confirms that
Aquila engraved it before Philip V’s visit to Naples in April
1702. All of the above would make it difficult to understand
why the small painting by Solimena in the Neapolitan private
THE “BUEN GUSTO ROMANO” OF THE VICEROYS
collection should turn out to be such a poor and obsolete likeness of Louis XIV’s grandson 111.
Yet, in this author’s opinion, the allegorical portrait in the
private Neapolitan collection (fig. 11) did not represent Philip
V but a Bavarian heir apparent of the Spanish throne, Prince
Josef Ferdinand, son of Maximilian Emmanuel, Elector Palatine,
by his first wife Maria Antonia of Austria, and grandson of Margarita María Teresa, Charles II’s sister. The king’s mother, the influential Mariana of Austria, had championed down to her very
last breath the cause of Josef Ferdinand, her only great-grandson. On her deathbed, the Dowager Queen Mariana requested
Charles II name the Wittelsbach prince universal heir of the Spanish monarchy. Without overestimating the limited strategic viability of keeping the multinational Spanish monarchy united under Josef Ferdinand after the death of his great-uncle Charles II,
one can hardly stress enough the extent to which the Bavarian
prince became the Spanish sovereign’s only hope of keeping the
opposing claims of the Austrian Habsburgs and the French Bourbons at bay. In 1697 rumors circulated Charles II had chosen
Josef Ferdinand as his heir and, in fact, on September 13th, 1696,
he had signed a secret testament in favor of the prince 112. As a
response to the treatise forestalling the partition of the Spanish
monarchy, signed by Louis XIV and William III at The Hague
on October 11th, 1698, Charles II wrote a second testament on
November 11th, 1698, in which he confirmed the six-year-old Josef
Ferdinand as his sole heir. Unlike the eleventh-hour designation
of Philippe d’Anjou as heir 113, Josef Ferdinand enjoyed a wellpublicized status as Charles II’s heir apparent, lasting from 1696
until his untimely death in Brussels on February 6th, 1699. Such
status was surely reflected in portraiture 114: an engraved portrait
by Carl Gustav Amling shows the prince “utrumque paratur”
with Athena and Ares on either side, emphasizing the impor-
231
tance of his ongoing education in paving the way for his exaltinaceli’s cultural and political entourage. The allegory was simed future 115. His portrait by Henri Gascar, engraved by Zimply structured, with Minerva as embodiment of both Wisdom
mermann, shows him in regal attitude wearing armor (fig. 15) 116.
and Fortitude motioning approvingly to the central character so
Lastly, in an exquisite pastel portrait by Joseph Vivien, we find
as to instruct Clio (History) to keep record of his deeds. It would
him in a commanding attitude, shielded again by a breastplate
be particularly appealing to learned men who, like Castiglione,
and pointing to the sea in the background, symbolic of the vast
attended the lessons of the Accademia Palatina, a literary and
Spanish inheritance which awaited him (fig. 16) 117. In light of
scientific academy singled out by recent scholarship for the exthese portraits and of the popularity enjoyed by Josef Ferdinand
traordinary attention it devoted to the study of History 119. Shortly before and after Philip V became King of Naples, the succinct
between 1696 and 1699, Medinaceli may have requested a porallegory would have given rise to two more allegories of kingtrait of the prince from his father the Elector Maximilian Emanuel
ship. One, devoted to Louis XIV, in the form of a vertical can(as he did later with Philippe d’Anjou). A replica of Solimena’s
vas with six more allegorical figures (1700-01). The second one,
tripartite allegory, displaying the designated heir in lieu of the
devoted to his grandson, which amounted to both a simplificareigning monarch, would have appeared in turn a self-evident
tion and a transformation (fig. 14). In Aquila’s engraving of 1701
choice to allude to the auspicious future of a united monarchy
we still find Minerva with the lion to her side, but we miss both
under a Wittelsbach ruler. The central oval of the canvas in Naples
Chronos and Clio, now substituted by a trumpeting Fame, idencannot be judged as a very accurate portrait of Josef Ferdinand
tical (only reversed) 120 to the one appearing in the canvas combut, rather, a second-hand one based on a drawing or engraving
missioned by Gualtieri for Louis XIV – proving that composiof the prince available in Naples at the time. Like Vivien, Solitional details of Aquila’s
mena apparently chose to
engraving and the painting
represent a child matured
now at the Hermitage were
beyond his tender age.
worked out almost simulThe presence of a
taneously in 1701 within
painting described as a seSolimena’s very busy
ries of figures and a medal
workshop. The engraving
by Solimena in Mediwas clearly conceived in
naceli’s household invenNaples as a vindication of
tory of paintings is highly
the newly established
significant, implying the
Bourbon rule with a wide
viceroy probably owned a
public in mind (fig. 14).
version of the Hermitage
Careful to juxtapose the
allegory of rule by Solimesilhouette of Mount Vesuna. Unfortunately, the invius in the horizon with
ventory does not describe
the dome of the Cappella
the medal nor the figures,
di San Gennaro, reminisbut the measurements
cent of the protective aura
recorded are exceptionalof Saint Januarius’, Solily close to those of the
mena was no longer adpainting commissioned by
dressing a restricted milieu
Gualtieri 118. In summary,
should our identifications
of cultured patrons but a
be correct, we may conmuch broader Neapolitan
jecture that probably in
audience. Enlivening the
1696, Solimena, perhaps in
emphatic frontality of the
connection with the lavish
oval portrait by means of
rejoicings staged by Medthe diagonal tension esinaceli to mark Charles II’s
tablished between Fame in
recovered health, coma flurry and the majestic
posed a simple tripartite
poise of Hispania-Minerallegory of Spanish rule,
va, Solimena achieved
later reused to honor his
great effect both aesthetiheir Josef Ferdinand of
cal and political.
Bavaria (ca. 1698) or to
The evident Roman
commemorate in 1699 the
inspiration of the engravpromotion of the Prince of
ing is not only characterCastiglione to the status of
istic of Solimena’s work in
Grandee of Spain by
1701, but also of his most
Charles II. All three vergifted disciple Ferdinando
sions shared a very small
Sanfelice. Significantly, De
format, suggesting a type
Dominici situates preciseof painting meant for the
ly in this year Sanfelice’s
aesthetic enjoyment of an
career change to architecelite of cognoscenti. I susture, praising very intentFig. 17. Ferdinando Sanfelice (design), Francesco Faraone Aquila (engraver), Catafalque in
pect all three versions were
ly the disciple’s ability to
honor of Charles II, King of Spain, at the Cappella di San Gennaro, Duomo (Naples 1701);
engraving, mm 705x400. Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III.
closely connected to Meddraw masterfully 121. If Car-
232
JORGE FERNÁNDEZ-SANTOS ORTIZ-IRIBAS
pio’s interest in collecting drawings both in Rome and Naples
has rightly drawn the attention of scholars, few have remarked
upon the fact that the Marchese Pompeo Azzolini, who was chosen by Medinaceli in 1696 as captain of the viceregal guard and
who accompanied him in his incognito entry into Naples, took
with him part of Christina of Sweden’s collection of drawings
to Naples 122, something Solimena and his disciples must have
known about 123. Indeed, within circles connected to the viceregal court, appreciation of Roman “disegno” was paramount, as
was also the case with Archbishop Cantelmo 124 and with very
prominent members of the city’s government and of the powerful legal establishment. In this historical context, Sanfelice – “nobile di seggio” himself – was chosen to design the catafalque in
honor of Charles II to be erected in the Cappella di San Gennaro at the Duomo (fig. 17) 125. The extraordinary result was in
keeping with Solimena’s classicist tendencies, to which Sanfelice added his resourceful spatial inventiveness. An orb upon
which a tilted crown and scepter rested, crowned a triumphal
composite column, bedecked with a spiraling train of spolia and
coats of arms of the diverse realms under Spanish rule 126. Slightly upwards of the midcolumn mark, two trumpeting angels of
undeniable Solimenesque elegance held aloft the medallion portrait of Charles II in armor, strikingly close to the one present
in one of the small allegories of Spanish rule also attributed to
Solimena 127. Four volutes jutted out from the column’s dado to
prop up a corresponding number of funerary urns which let out
ascending trails of smoke. The mixtilinear octagonal base was
rotated 45 degrees respective of the main axis of the chapel in
such a way that its narrow, protruding rectilinear segments faced
the piers; while the four broad, receding curvilinear ones faced
the entry, the two side altars, and the main altar. The volumetric prominence of the scalloped podium (basamento centinato),
a staple of Arcadian architecture 128, counterweighted the verticality of the upper half, whereas columns, spirals, and candelabra vied with one another in forest-like ascent. Four pairs of
virtues contributed to mediate between the upper vertical tension and the weightiness of the base, striking a subtle pyramidal balance. The young Sanfelice, without doubt relying upon
the advice of his master Solimena, was responsible for one of
the most striking catafalques of the history of Naples.
Sanfelice’s subtlety did not stop at compositional issues. Behind the heraldic lion of Spain at the foot of the catafalque Sanfelice placed an emblem of the setting sun with the motto “Semper idem”, an inescapable reference to the ineluctability of
death’s leveling work. The skyward volutes and the spiraling spolia around the column, an emblem of the unyielding character
of royal justice 129, managed to summon up the appearance of
both a columna triumphalis and a columna rostrata 130, drawing
inspiration from classical models, as well as from the local tradition of guglie. Witness to the dynastic change just taken place,
Sanfelice edited out with utmost care the sort of aquiline imagery that would bring to mind the Habsburg lineage of the deceased king and reserved instead the limelight for the Spanish
lion. When considered in conjunction with the motto “Semper
idem”, the column was also meant to be understood as a reassuring emblem of the stability of kingship 131. Likewise, the steadfastness of the Neapolitans in supporting their new king was expected to remain unchanged. Not by chance the programmatic intent of the funeral display echoed closely Medinaceli’s calculated loyalism to the new dynasty, an attitude shared by the
most active intellectuals of the “ceto civile” and by significant
members of the aristocracy. The exceptional engraving by
Francesco Aquila announces Sanfelice’s highly personal adherence to classicism (fig. 17). Indeed, the impact of Carlo Fontana’s
THE “BUEN GUSTO ROMANO” OF THE VICEROYS
Fig. 18. Unidentified draftsman and engraver, Allegorical frontispiece dedicated to
the Accademia degli Spensierati di Rossano (Naples 1703); engraving, mm 149x198.
Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de España.
stringent compositional formulas was held in check by Sanfelice’s vigorous imagination and keen sense of the dramatic potential of space, which proved in fact closer to Fontana’s master, Bernini. Christoph Schor’s ephemera, as far as the anonymous engravings of the 1697 decorations at the Carmine Maggiore allow us to imagine (fig. 8), eschewed Bernini’s dramatic
tension in favor of a highly disciplined compositional strategy
based on playing natural against geometric forms. In truth,
Schor’s ephemeral theaters and amphitheaters, remarkable for
the studied contrast between geometric clarity and natural form
(fig. 6), enjoyed great popularity within a restricted milieu of
enlightened literati on the eve of the foundation of the Neapolitan Arcadian colony, Sebezia, on August 17th, 1703. The severe
architecture of the academic amphitheater displayed on the engraved frontispiece of the Elogi Accademici, published by Giacinto Gimma in 1703 132, served as backdrop for a gathering of
the muses presided by Accademia (fig. 18). One may identify
without difficulty the main characters of Solimena’s allegories
of rule in the foreground of the allegorical frontispiece conceived
by Gimma: to the left, Time and Envy, defeated by Eternity; to
the right, the muse of History, Clio, writes down – while listening to Fame – the deeds of the members of the Accademia
degli Spensierati, whose portraits will, one by one, crown the
Doric hemicycle. Whereas the formally restrained but impressive architecture of Christoph Schor exemplified a new rational
emphasis agreeable to the viceroy and the intellectual elite that
surrounded him, Solimena’s and Sanfelice’s ability to draw inspiration from Roman models without losing sight of Neapolitan traditions must have appealed to wider sectors of the population, while also carrying weight with the viceregal court as
pictorial and architectural embodiment of the new aspiration
for composure, for gravitas and simplicitas.
233
DOCUMENTARY APPENDIX
ASN, Regia Camera della Sommaria, Segreteria, Viglietti e dispacci, Viglietti originali, 37 (Viglietti, & altre Scritture da Gen.o
per Giugno 1703)
1. Orazio Schips’ petition to the marquis of Villena, viceroy of
Naples:
“Eccmo Sigre / Oratio Schips attuario della Ra Cama sup.do rapntâ
a V.E. come per le tre Carrozze che l’E. Sua sin dal mese di febraro passato commandò farsi et trouarsi pronte nella uenuta
di S.M.tà che Dio gdi in qesta Citta ne fù commissario il S.r Pres.te
D. Franco Milano il quale ordinò al Sup.te che li accodisse per
detto Real Seruitio, cosi per andare assistendo appresso li Mercanti, et Sollicitarli la Consegna de Drappi et altri ornam.ti d’oro che si doueuano ponere in dette Carrozze; come per tenere
conto, et rag.ne del gasto, et pagam.ti si andauano facendo alli
maestri che trauaglia[no] nella fabbrica di quelle, sin come dal
sup.te fù il tutto eseguito con ogni pontualità, et con tutta Sodisfat.ne del detto Pres.te, Il quale in attentione di tante Sue fatighe
nel mentre che fece appurare da esso supte tutti li conti di detti Interessati et trasmessi à V.E. Si serui rapresentarli che tanto
al Ing.ro Christofano Schor come ad esso sup.te si doueua reconoscim.ti per lassistenza & accudim.to fatto in detto R.l Seruitio
à quanto Se li era ordinato, come più distintam.te appare dal original Conto trasmesso espresandoli con il seg.te Capitulo V[idelicet] / Ademas Se deue dar reconocim.to al m.co Ing.o por Su
continua assistenzia y sobreintendenzia en el tiempo que se han
hecho las Carozas Y al Escribano Oratio Squibs [sic] que hà
acodido à q.to Se ha ord.to / Et hauendo V.E rimesso detti Conti alla Giunta del Arsenale con Viglietto de Sedici di luglio passato et ordinato che Si debbiano Spedire le Certificatorie delli
Crediti di detti Interessati e farne formare le Interuentioni dal
Scriuano di Ratione per trattarsi poi la Sodisfatne di quello Sono Creditori, et trattarsi anco il pagam.to delle fatighe // fatte
dal R.o Ing.ro Christofano Schor dà tassarnosi per detta R.a Giunta essendosi tralasciato includere in detti uiglietto il sup.te per le
Sue fatighe gia rapntâte a V.E dà detto s.r Presidente Milano Ricorre per tanto dal E.a Sua et la Sup.ca Seruirsi di ordinare à detta Giunta che anco proceda alla tasa delle Sue fatighe nella forma disposta per detto r.o Ing.ro che altre giusto lo riceuerà a grã
ut deus & /”
Torres de Medrano reported to the Giunta dell’Arsenale on August 9th, 1702 and asked Bonifacio de Andrade, Commissario del
Regio Arsenale, on September 22nd, 1702, to review Schips’s petition. On December 14th, 1702, Andrade referred the matter to the
regent Onofrio Vecchione, stating that “riconosciuti gli atti riferisca quello puol darsi per le fatighe del sudetto Schips et per
il m.co Ing.ro Xprô Schor.” Onofrio Vecchione reported back to
Bonifacio d’Andrade on March 26th, 1703, noting that “dagli atti appare che Schips ha fatte molte fatiche accudendo presso
della persona del Presidente Milano e ancora per la provista di
234
cere e cose dolci per servizio di SM dal principio di marzo in
cui SE si serví incaricare le carrozze, ha anche spedito le certificatorie di pagamenti a beneficio dei mercanti che diedero il
drappo & altri generi, & altre persone interessate […] le tassa
in ∂50 [50 ducats].” As to the required appraisal of the “fatiche
di Schor”, Vecchione states that Schor executed 12 drawings for
the carriages, “oltre l’hauer continuam.te accudito durante la d.a
fab.ca, in tutto quello bisognaua con dar la dirett.ne a Maestri, affinche l’opera riuscisse di perfett.ne, con hauer fatto l’apprezzo,
e tasse di tutte le liste, e conti di Spese di differenti lauori presentate dà Interessati, e formatone la relat.ne à 9. Giug.o del med.o
anno” for all of which he should be paid 200 ducats. The document is countersigned by Andrade (on May 4th, 1703) and by Vecchione (May 12th, 1703.) The “nota” below, however, would imply C. Schor executed at least 21 drawings:
2. List of drawings executed by Christoph Schor:
“Nota delli disegni di Carrozze ordinati dal Sig.r Presidente Milano precedente ordine di S. E.za per seruitio di S.a M.à Che Dio
g.i Detti disegni fatti da Cristofaro Shor nella Conformità che
ueniuano ordinati; con hauere assistito di Continuo alla fabbrica di dette Carrozze. Il tutto destintamente notato Come segue.
Si è fatto un disegno in foglio reale di una Carrozza nobile alla
Romana, con Suoi ornamenti, e traino il tutto disegnato, e miniato a Colori –
Si è fatto un disegno per un frullone nobile a stufa con diuersi
ornamenti et intagli –
Si è fatto altri due disegni di frulloni medemam.e a Stufa n.n tanto ricchi –
Si è fatto un disegno di Carrozza a Stufa alla francese, che seruì per S. M.a Che Dio g.i –
Si è fatto altri due disegni simili per la Seconda, e terza Carrrozza seruite come sopra –
Si è fatto il disegno in grande della parte dietro del traino sopra Carte // incollate della giusta misura che si fece d’intaglio
–
Si è fatto il disegno della parte d’auanti del traino in grande come sopra –
Si è fatto il disegno in grande per le quattro Cantonate della
Cassa –
Si è fatto li disegni delli pomi, fibbie grandi, è piccole, Chiodo,
bocchie, sopraspalle et altro per l’ottonaro –
Si è fatto li disegni per le pitture della Cassa, con imprese, rabeschi, figure, puttini, festoni, et altri ornam.i consistenti, uno
per la parte dietro della Cassa, uno per la fiancatella, et uno per
lo Sportello –
Si è fatto Simili disegni in grande come nelle Cinque partite antecedenti per la Seconda Carrozza mà con diferenti ornamenti
–
Si è fatto Simili disegni in grande come sopra per la terza Carrozza mà uariati dalli sud.i ornam.i – //
Si è assistito a tutta la Sud.a opera dalli sei di marzo 1702 sino
li 15 Maggio del med.o Año con assistenza Continuata acciò L’opera riuscisse di perfettione –”
JORGE FERNÁNDEZ-SANTOS ORTIZ-IRIBAS
Research has been made possible by a post-doctoral Forschungsstipendium
awarded by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung, Düsseldorf. The author appreciates
Catherine Monbeig-Goguel’s, Sebastian Schütze’s, and Francesco Solinas’ favorable remarks on the lecture “The Duke of Medinaceli and the Dawn of
the Neapolitan Arcadia.” Thanks are owed as well to Nicola Iodice for his
patience and availability. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Beatrice Mirri for doing her best to trace an engraving that belonged to her late
husband Maurizio Fagiolo dell’Arco and to Isabel Ortega for allowing me to
photograph F. Aquila’s engraving (fig. 14) just in time for the Paris symposium. Annemarie Jordan Schwend kindly read the article; her very helpful and
generous corrections and suggestions have contributed significantly to the text.
It must be stressed that this essay is the result of a rewarding collaboration
with Giulia Fusconi, who reflected on the importance of re-examining how
Roman ephemera influenced Neapolitan art in the the last two decades of the
Seicento and, indeed, of doing so in the context of the first “colloque international” devoted to Neapolitan drawing. Without her plenty and helpful advice, this article would stand on less firm foundations. Any remaining mistakes and/or omissions are the author’s sole responsibility.
2
On November 25th, 1692, the Consejo de Estado agreed that the cost of the
medal and chain should not exceed 1,000 escudos and suggested “que la medalla se embie de aca, pues aunque en Roma, y Ytalia, se haria con mayor primor, no seria de tanta estimacion como yendo de aqui para el que la reciue.”
Valladolid, Archivo General de Simancas (hereafter cited as AGS), Estado,
leg. 3089. On Lucenti’s work, see Steven F. Ostrow, Gianlorenzo Bernini, Girolamo Lucenti, and the Statue of Philip IV in S. Maria Maggiore: Patronage and
Politics in Seicento Rome, in “The Art Bulletin”, 73.1 (March 1991), pp. 89118. The author thanks Isabel Aguirre Landa for her support and guidance
during invariably pleasant stays at Simancas.
3
Among many others, one may refer to the 5th Duke of Osuna, Medinaceli’s
father-in-law and former governor of Milan (1669-74). See Feliciano Barrios,
El Consejo de Estado de la Monarquía Española 1521-1813, Madrid 1984, pp.
385-408 (pp. 390-391).
4
In what reads as a blatant anachronism, the letter sent by Medinaceli on August 3rd, 1692, attributed Henry IV’s statue at San Giovanni in Laterano, which
is owed to Nicolas Cordier il Franciosino, to Bernini: “[…] pues al Cauallero
Bernini en la Ocasion de hauer hecho la estatua de Henrrico 4.o que esta en
san Juo de Letran, se la dio el Rey Christi.mo hauiendole hecho Juntamente
merced de dos mill escudos en contado, y a su her.o que tubo el encargo de
cuidar de la obra, de 900 escudos por vna vez, lo qual tengo entendido ser
çierto, y este exemplar podra façilitar mas el buen Despacho de la pretension
deste Cauallero, que tanto es mas digna de atenderse, quanto es maior el primor de la obra // que haze grandissima ventaja a la executada por Bernini.”
AGS, Estado, leg. 3089. One may presume that a draft version of Lucenti’s
request citing various historical precedents was somehow misinterpreted by
one of Medinaceli’s secretaries.
5
Lucenti’s recompense was not materialized until 1698, at which point it fell
on Medinaceli to finance its execution in Naples, owing to the Spanish court’s
inveterate practice of diverting all sorts of sumptuary commissions to the
Neapolitan viceroyalty (see Medinaceli’s letter dated March 3rd, 1698, in which
he informs that the chain and medallion are being made – AGS, Estado, leg.
3329). It should be noted that Girolamo Lucenti died in Rome on April 4th,
1698, and probably never got to hold the longed-for present in his hands.
6
On November 18th, 1687, La Teulière wrote from Rome to Louvois recommending that the shipment of French engravings be cancelled: “Je m’estois
donné l’honneur de vous escrire, Monseigneur, il y a quinze jours, sur les livres
d’Estampes que l’on avoit destiné // pour le Gentilhomme du Vice-Roy de
Naples, qui avoit accompagné Monseigneur le marquis de Souvré [Louis-Nicolas Le Tellier, marquis de Souvré 1667-1725]. Comme l’on reçeut hier la nouvelle de la mort dudit Vice-Roy, je crois qu’il seroit inutile d’envoyer ces livres,
à moins que vous ne voulussiez qu’il servissent pour l’estudes des Académistes.”
Anatole de Montaiglon, Correspondance des directeurs de l’Académie de France
à Rome avec les surintendants des bâtiments publiée d’après les manuscrits des
Archives nationales, I (1666-1694), Paris 1887, pp. 166-169, doc. n. 270. On
Sebastián de Villarreal, see also Fusconi (in these proceedings).
7
One exception is represented by several letters sent by the Duke of Uceda
to his Madrid agent Félix de la Cruz Aedo, which were in fact preserved as a
result of legal seizure in 1711. See Margarita Martín Velasco, “La documentación histórica y la publicística del siglo XVIII. El IV Duque de Uceda
y su correspondencia con don Félix de la Cruz Aedo”, Documentación de las
Ciencias de la Información, 29 (2006), pp. 141-164.
8
The painting is mentioned in no less than twelve letters by Coléns sent from
Venice, dating from March 31st, 1696, to March 8th, 1698. Toledo, Archivo de
la Fundación Casa Ducal de Medinaceli (hereafter cited as ADM), Sección
Histórica (hereafter cited as SH), leg. 14, r. 3.
9
In a letter dated February 2nd, 1697, Coléns writes: “[…] Este bendito tiempo que Corre no dà lugar a que acaue de Secarse El quadro de sn Bar.me despues que Carlo lot, quitó Vna figura y puso otra en su lugar […].” On April
13th he commented on Loth’s relentless drive for perfection: “[…] Amigo este
es hombre raro en su profesion, no sè Contenta con hazer Vna Cosa buena,
pues por buena que sea piensa en hazerla mejor y deshaze lo obrado con que
por fuerza es menester mucho tiempo para sacar de su mano alguna obra perfecta como con efecto lo es este quadro, q[ue] le hà mudado y remudado tres
vezes y à mi me hà hecho desesperar tres mil […]” (ibid.).
10
“[…] despues de año y medio de pazienzia que hè tenido con este gran Carlo lot, hà feneçido el quadro de s.n Bar.me (acora puedo assegurar queda feneçi1
THE “BUEN GUSTO ROMANO” OF THE VICEROYS
do de todo punto) que es en la forma que muestra el diseño adjunto que se
seruirá Vm. poner en manos de S.E. y à mi á sus Pies con todo rendimiento
[…]” (ibid.).
11
The painting left Venice on November 2nd, 1698, but Coléns still awaited
word of its arrival in Naples as late as March 8th, 1698 (ibid). I have not been
able to trace this painting in Medinaceli’s otherwise incomplete inventory of
paintings (note 15 below), although one may find there a hereto misidentified
painting, also by Loth, of Lot and his daughters (see note 17 below) measuring approx. 125x125 cm. Gerhard Ewald, Johann Carl Loth 1632-1698, Amsterdam 1965, p. 84 (nos. 238-242), catalogues various paintings of Saint
Bartholomew, proving it was a popular subject with the German painter. Sets
of measurements were sent on a regular basis from Naples to Venice, such as
was the case with those sent in the summer of 1698 to request Venetian glazing for one of the viceregal coaches.
12
The letter in question was sent from Venice on October 11th, 1698 (ADM,
SH, leg. 14, r. 3). Coléns also mentioned designs received from Naples for
trimmings, vases, and decorative tufts for parade horses. The Venetian
“testores” objected that “Volendo fare un drappo secondo il disegno, con fondi oro, e broc:to di cordonetto d’oro come mostra il detto disegno, si considera, che sarà di grandissima spesa, e pocca comparsa. La raggione è che essendoui quantità de fiori, parte oro, e parte seta in confuso, si ricerca quantità de spollini [i.e. spolini], che il drappo non sarebbe capace da riceuerli, e
chi uolesse scansare La fattura, andarabbe bona parte dell’oro dal rouerso,
cossi che il drappo sarà di gran prezzo, e di pocca comparsa. Oltre di ciò si
ricerca p[er] Laltezza straordinaria, da fabricare noui tellari, noui petini, noui
licci, e in sostanza fare molte cose che non seruomo ad’altro che à fabricare
il drappo che si comette de canne 50 et sopra il medesimo ponerui tutti li
agrauij. […].” The alternative brocade samples sent from Venice were discarded in turn by Medinaceli as too costly.
13
The possibility of alterations is suggested by the fact that Coléns sent the
drawings to Diego Cabreros a second time on April 18th (ibid.).
14
On May 9th, 1699 Coléns reassured Cabreros that he was aware that the artisan should not reuse “los diseños para persona alguna” since the Duke of
Medinaceli “quiere ser el Vnico de Valerse y seruirse dellos en los espejos”
(ibid.). In an undated eighteenth-century inventory of the Medinaceli household we find six large mirrors attributed to “Joseph el Veneciano”: “Mas seis
Espejos, cada dos Compañeros, con seis Marcos dorados, y sus Remates con
vn Mascaronzillo en medio // de el mismo rematte que le hizo Joseph el Veneciano, y las Lunas son las que quitaron de los marcos q[ue] hauia de Christal”
(ADM, SH, leg. 85, r.1, fol. 114r).
15
The inventory of Medinaceli’s collection of paintings was published by Vicente Lleó Cañal, “The Art Collection of the ninth Duke of Medinaceli”, in
“Burlington Magazine” 131.1031 (February 1989), pp. 108-116.
16
The inventory published by Lleó Cañal, however, cannot be considered a
complete list of all the paintings owned by the 9th Duke of Medinaceli but only of those that were claimed by his nephew and heir, Don Nicolás Fernández de Córdoba Figueroa y de la Cerda, 10th Duke of Medinaceli, after his uncle’s death in 1711.
17
Lleó Cañal 1989 (note 13 above), pp. 113 (§16) and 115 (§219). The inventory reference to a painting of Lot and his daughters by a certain “Cot”
must be interpreted as a misspelling of “Lot”, by which name Johann Carl
Loth was known in Italy. Excusably, the copyist may have been perplexed by
the similarity between the painter’s family name (Lot or Loth) and the Biblical figure depicted in the painting (Lot). Moreover, documents attest that Medinaceli commissioned a martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew from Loth (see notes
8-11 above). Likewise, the reference to a half-length portrait of a man by “Cascar” designates, in this author’s opinion, the celebrated court portraitist Henri Gascar, who was active in Rome from 1659 until 1667 and from 1681 until his death in 1701, with occasional trips to other European capitals.
18
“Ill:mo et Ecc:mo Sig.re / Subito che m’è p[er]uenuta La Lra. vmaniss.a di V.E.,
colla quale mi dimostraua il desiderio che aueua d’auer costì il Pittor Garzi p[er]
dipigner La Sala di cod. Real Palazzo, scrissi a Mons.r Arciu.o di Pisa [Francesco
Pannochieschi d’Elci], che si ritroua, a Roma p[er] che si contentasse di conceder all’E.V. il sud. Professore; e uoglio sperar che q[ue]l Prelato si abbia a disporre, a renderla seruita comesso [sic] L’hò pregato, ed’attendo con ansietà d’udir
dalle sue repliche. Sà V.E. L’obbligo strettiss.o, che mi corre di secondare il suo
gusto, e p[er] ciò La prego a suggerirmi nuoue occasioni di seruirla; ed in tal
desiderio resto nel baciare all’E.V. di uero cuore Le mani. / Di V.E. / Di Pratolino li 2 7bre 1698 / [Tuo Vero] [autograph signature]” (ADM, SH, leg. 29, r. 1).
19
Leone Pascoli, Vite de’ pittori, scultori, ed architetti moderni, Roma 173036, II, pp. 235-45 (pp. 238-240).
20
A characteristically biased account is found in Giuseppe Coniglio, I vicerè
spagnoli di Napoli, Naples 1967, pp. 336-47 (pp. 345-47).
21
Lezioni dell’Accademia di Palazzo del duca di Medinaceli, ed. by Michele Rak,
Naples 2005, V, pp. 30-37.
22
Significantly, Giannone’s positive assessment of Medinaceli’s government
could have been written only by someone exceptionally close to the intellectuals responsible for its major policy lines. Pietro Giannone, Istoria civile del
Regno di Napoli, 4 vols., Naples 1723, IV, lib. XL, pp. 476-480.
23
Giuseppe Galasso, Napoli spagnola dopo Masaniello: politica, cultura, società, 2 vols., Naples 1972, represents an indispensable contribution to the field.
24
On May 27th, 1701, Medinaceli wrote to the marquis of Mancera from Naples:
“ […] es politica porq[ue] teniendo aqui tanta mano los Abogados con la nobleza, y aun con el Pueblo, y no siendo los q[ue] la tienen, sino es los mejores
p.a muchisimos negocios, con los vnos, y los otros es men.r valerse el Virrey
235
dellos, y si no tienen la esperanza de entrar al Ministerio, como sucedia con
quatro Plazas prouehidas de antemano, y con verse q[ue] el dinero, y no otra
cosa las ha hecho lograr, mal se podrian inducir à obrar lo q[ue] vn Virrey
q[ue] no los podia fauorezer les ordenaua; UE se lo represente assi al Rey //
si fuera menr en mi nombre pues yo con representarlo à UE descargo mi oblig.n
[…]” (ADM, SH, leg. 15).
25
On July 12th, 1697, Medinaceli wrote to his brother-in-law the 11th Admiral
of Castile: “[…] dansoseme poco de q[ue] Roma, me tuuiese por esto en opinion de impio […]” (ADM, SH, leg. 1, r. 2).
26
Copies found at: Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de España (hereafter cited as
BNM), sign. IH/4695-1; Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana,
Stampe.III.99(37); Rome, Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica, Fondo Corsini 122185.
27
Fusconi (in these proceedings), fig. 2.
28
One may mention the portraits of cardinals Giacomo Cantelmo Stuart (1690)
engraved by J. Blondeau; Ferdinando d’Adda (1690) engraved by R. van Audenaerd; Lorenzo Altieri (1690) engraved by A. van Westerhout, and Giacomo Boncompagni (1695) engraved by N. Dorigny, which confirm Lesma’s popularity as a portraitist in Ottobonian and Pignatellian Rome.
29
Fusconi (in these proceedings), fig. 11.
30
Ferdinando Bologna, La dimensione europea della cultura artistica napoletana nel XVIII secolo, in Arti e civiltà del Settecento a Napoli, ed. by C. De Seta, Roma/Bari 1982, pp. 31-78 (p. 44, with reference to: Fausto Nicolini, La
giovinezza di Giambattista Vico, Bari 1932, pp. 82-83).
31
“From the 1670s to the 1720s […] by far the most important intellectual
ferment in Italy was that which welled up in Naples.” Jonathan Israel, Critical
Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity, Oxford 2001, p. 49.
32
Aside from Audenaerd’s 1696 engraving, no less than four other engravings
were derived more or less directly from Lesma’s “official portrait” of Medinaceli. One, perhaps the coarsest, by Francesco De Grado, measuring 11.6x6.9
cm (BNM, IH/4695-2; Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III
(hereafter cited as BNN), ms. XV.G.30, fol. 6r), was intended to introduce a
commemorative opuscule dedicated to Medinaceli by the author Francesco
Maria Cimino, Oratio pro Sereniss. Hispaniarum Regis Caroli II. recuperata
salute…, Naples 1697. The engraved frontispiece by Andrea Magliar of another commemorative work dedicated to the viceroy (Pompe funerali Celebrate in Napoli per l’Eccellentissima Signora D. Caterina d’Aragona…, Naples
1697) includes a reproduction of Lesma’s presumably oval canvas (the frontispiece measures 18.9x29.8 cm; the oval portrait 7.5x4.2 cm). The allegorical frontispiece of a third book dedicated to Medinaceli but published in Brussels in 1700 (Sebastián Fernández de Medrano, El Architecto Perfecto en el
Arte Militar, dividido en cinco libros…, Brussels 1700) shows a very similar
oval portrait, leading one to conjecture that the engraver Jacob Harrewyn
worked from a drawing and/or engraving sent from Naples (the frontispiece
measures 9.35x14.25 cm; the very small oval portrait 3.25xca. 2 cm). Only one
(BNN, ms. XV.G.27, fol. 136v) is reversed with respect to Audenaerd’s engraving, meaning perhaps that it was the only one derived from an engraving
and not from Lesma’s original painting. Massimo Pisani, Dal ritratto classico
alla nascita ed evoluzione del ritratto ufficiale cinquecentesco. Committenza a
Napoli tra Sei e Settecento, in Capolavori in festa… (note 64 below), pp. 5572, p. 66, figs. 24 and 25. Jorge Fernández-Santos Ortiz-Iribas, ‘In tuono lidio
si lamentevole.’ Regia magnificencia y poética arcádica en las exequias napolitanas por Catalina Antonia de Aragón, VIII Duquesa de Segorbe (1697) in
Nápoles y España: coleccionismo y mecenazgo artístico de los virreyes en el siglo
XVII, ed. by J.L. Colomer (CEEH, Madrid, in press), fig. 7. My heartfelt thanks
to Giulia Fusconi for drawing my attention to these similarities.
33
Medinaceli’s letter with the drawing of the medal is dated October 3rd, 1688.
AGS, Estado, leg. 3076 and Mapas, Planos y Dibujos, XXVI-18. Murray G.
H. Pittock, Poetry and Jacobite Politics in Eighteenth-Century Britain and Ireland, Cambridge 1994, pp. 33-34.
34
Writing from London on May 16th, 1692, Don Antonio Coloma, marquis of
Canales, displayed a keen eye for fashion: “S.or mio Las postdatas en seruiçio
de las Señoras hermosean los escritos: Las Modas se mudan aqui cada ocho
dias: y viendo yo â esta Reyna casi todos nunca la allo // vestida ni tocada en
vna misma forma Essa estampa es de las mas nuebas; en ella no se conoze el
tocado por lo de detras que es lo mas difiçil de compreender; para todo era
neçessario vna pupee (ô muñeca) si la curiosidad pasare a esto sera neçesaro
embiarla a Holanda para encaminarla desde alli […]” (Palma de Mallorca, Biblioteca de la Fundació Bartomeu March Servera, ms. B82 B 11, fols. 121v-122r).
35
Rome, Archivio del Vicariato di Roma (hereafter cited as AVR), Sant Andrea delle Fratte, Stati d’anime, vols. 72 (1684-85) to 77 (1694-95), record unfailingly the presence of Christoph Schor and his mother Brigida Frulla, accompanied by various family members and servants. In 1687 and 1688 two
siblings of Alessandro Scarlatti (Giuseppe and the singer Anna Maria) were
living with them. In 1696 Christoph and Brigida are for the first time absent
from the parish “stati”, having just moved to Naples. Ibid., vol. 78 (1696-97).
36
The musical aspects of the serenade have been discussed by Thomas Griffin, Nuove fonti per la musica a Napoli durante il regno del Marchese del Carpio (1683-1687), in “Rivista Italiana di Musicologia”, 16 (1981), pp. 207-228.
On the relevance of the 1687 “serenata” by Bernardo Pasquini and its iconographic novelties, see Hans Joachim Marx, The Instrumentation of Händel’s
Early Italian Works, in “Early Music”, 16.4 (November 1988), pp. 496-505
and John Spitzer, The Birth of the Orchestra in Rome: An Iconographic Study,
in “Early Music”, 19.1 (February 1991), pp. 9-28. The large engraving of the
piazza and apparato was reproduced and discussed by the late Maurizio Fagiolo dell’Arco, La festa barocca (Corpus delle feste a Roma, 1), Roma 1997,
236
pp. 538-539. My thanks to Ulrika Wingård (Kungl. Biblioteket, Stockholm)
for helping me trace the engraving, which was acquired by Nicodemus Tessin
The Younger in Rome. Catalogue des livres, estampes & desseins du cabinet
des beaux arts, & des sciences appartenant au Baron Tessin, Stockholm 1712,
ed. by Per Bjurström and Mårten Snickare, Stockholm 2000, p. 107: “Roma
/ I Fig. / Festa celebrata dall’Illustr: ed Eccell: Sig: Marchese di Coccagliudo
[sic], Ambasciadore del Rè Cattolico in Roma, per l’acclamatione del Nome,
di Maria Luigia, Regina delle Spagne, con una Nobilissima Serenata ed illuminatione, nella Piazza di Spagna. / 1687.”
37
Fernández-Santos, in press (note 32 above).
38
Diego de Saavedra Fajardo, Idea de un príncipe político cristiano rapresentada en cien empresas…, Milan 1642, pp. 78-84. Corresponds to emblem XI
of the princeps edition (Munich 1640).
39
Ibid., pp. 335-342. Corresponds to emblem LXXI of the princeps edition
(Munich 1640).
40
See the celebrated set of six engravings by Pietro Santi Bartoli and Teresa
del Po of Fontana’s design for the magnificent reception offered on August
15th, 1668, by Cardinal Flavio Chigi at the gardens of Villa Salvetti. Hellmut
Hager, Le opere letterarie di Carlo Fontana come autorappresentazione, in In
Urbe Architectus: Modelli, Disegni, Misure. La professione dell’architetto, Roma 1680-1750 (exh. cat. Roma 1991-92), ed. by B. Contardi and G. Curcio,
Rome 1992, pp. 155-203 (pp. 155-160).
41
Carlo Cartari describes the serenate of August 25th, 1687 and 1688. Roma,
Archivio di Stato (hereafter cited as ASR), Archivio Cartari-Febei, vol. 96,
fols. 21r-23v and vol. 97, fols. 213r-214r. Martine Boiteux, Fêtes et traditions
espagnoles à Rome au XVIIe siècle, in Barocco romano e barocco italiano: Il
teatro, l’effimero, l’allegoria, ed. by M. Fagiolo and M.L. Madonna, Rome 1985,
pp. 117-134 (p. 118). Philipp Schor’s 1681 apparato is discussed by Fusconi
(in these proceedings).
42
ASR, Archivio Cartari-Febei, vol. 104 (1691(II)), fol. 224rv.
43
Giornale di Napoli (Naples: Ludovico Cavallo), July 17th, 1696 [no. 30]. According to the journal, the viceroy had ordered that the “Palazzo detto de’
Cantalupi” be restored and embellished (“fatto notabilmente ristorare, ed
abbellire di nuove fabriche, e pitture […] senza riguardo à spesa veruna”), a
type of commission which must have followed shortly after Medinaceli’s arrival in Naples in March 1696 and which was, moreover, ideally suited to the
skills of both Philipp and Christoph Schor. See also Thomas Griffin, Musical
References in the “Gazzetta di Napoli”: 1681-1725, Berkeley 1993.
44
Giornale di Napoli, July 31st, 1696 [no. 32]. Nicola Russo and his brotherin-law Gaetano Brandi executed the pictorial tasks, while the architectural
and ornamental design was the responsibility of the “fratelli architetti Filippo, e Cristoforo Scor.” Franco Mancini, Feste ed apparati civili e religiosi in
Napoli dal Viceregno alla Capitale, Naples 1968, p. 32.
45
See Fusconi (in these proceedings).
46
Giornale di Napoli, November 13th, 1696 [no. 47] and August 17th, 1700
[no. 33].
47
Giornale di Napoli, August 10th, 1700 [no. 32]: “giovedi, 5 del medesimo
Agosto, giorno in cui compisce gli anni la mentovata Signora Viceregina […]
nella sera poi di questo dì fe’ rappresentare nel suo deliziosissimo casino colà
su l’ameno scoglio di Mergellina una commedia boscareccia da sceltissime armoniche voci, intitolata Dafni, posta in musica dal celebre Mastro di Cappella
Alessandro Scarlati, riuscita plausibilmente, che tuttavia si va replicando.”
Mancini 1968 (note 44 above), p. 36.
48
Doña María de las Nieves Téllez-Girón y Sandoval’s birthday on August 5th
followed shorthly after her husband’s own on August 2nd. Francesco Maria
Paglia, Il pastor di Corinto favola boschereccia […] da rappresentarsi nel casino di S. Ecc. in Posilipo per il cumpleanos dell’illustriss. […] D. Maria de Giron,
y Sandoval, Napoli, Domenico Antonio Parrino e Michele Luigi Muzio, 1701.
49
Giornale di Napoli, October 23rd, 1696 [no. 44]. The “diletteuole metamorfosi” that turned the garden from a “stanza di Flora” into a “fucina di
Vulcano” is certainly reminiscent of the Schor brothers’ mastery of pyrotechnics.
50
Giornale di Napoli, July 30th, 1697 [no. 32]. Mancini 1968 (note 44 above),
p. 31.
51
Giornale di Napoli, November 12th, 1697 [no. 47].
52
Distinta Relazione della Famosissima Festa Celebrata nella nuova Strada Medinaceli alla Spiaggia di Chiaja, nel giorno di S. Anna A 26. Luglio 1698. Per il
Nome, che ne porta la Maestà della Regina delle Spagne Nostra Signora Marianna di Neoburgo Fatta disporre dall’Eccellentiss. Sig. Duca di Medinaceli, Vicerè,
e Capitan Generale in questo Regno, Naples [1698]. See also Giornale di Napoli,
July 29th, 1698 [no. 31].
53
Giornale di Napoli, July 27th, 1700 [no. 30]. Mancini 1968 (note 44 above),
p. 36.
54
Biblioteca Angelica, Fondo dell’Arcadia, ms. 16, fols. 393v and 402r.
55
For bibliographical references of her various publications on the Schor (1985,
1986, 2007, and 2008), see Fusconi (in these proceedings).
56
Jorge Fernández-Santos Ortiz-Iribas, Philipp Schor’s Contribution to the Renewal of the Royal Chapel at the Madrid Alcázar and Notes on His Spanish Period (1697-1715), in Ein Regisseur des barocken Welttheaters: Johann Paul Schor
und die internationale Sprache des Barock, ed. by C. Strunck, Munich/Rome
2008, pp. 221-57 (p. 248, fig. 18).
57
The letter was posted on February 23rd, 1691, from Naples. The count of
Santisteban mentions that “[…] se acaua de Copiar Vn mapa que a echo el
Marques Garofalo, le remitire con esta para que se comprehenda mas bien lo
referido: […]”, which clearly indicates that Philipp Schor’s neat plan (“PhilipJORGE FERNÁNDEZ-SANTOS ORTIZ-IRIBAS
pus Scor delineauit. An. 1691”) was based on one commissioned in situ by
the Preside Marco Garofalo, marquis della Rocca. AGS, Mapas, Planos y Dibujos, VI-26, and Secretarías Provinciales, leg. 164. In fact, Garofalo commissioned the map from a local artist named Bartolomeo Matino (“A Bartolomeo
Matino Pittore duc. diecesette e tt. 1. prezzo di 31. carte Geografiche denota[n]te il modo della linea del Cordone – 17. 1.”). See Filippo de Arrieta,
Raguaglio historico del contaggio occorso nella provincia di Bari negli anni 1690,
1691 e 1692, Naples 1694, pp. 19, 70-80, 88-91, and 388. After the lecture on
which this essay is based, Alba Cappellieri, Filippo Schor e Fischer von Erlach
a Napoli: nuovi contributi per la diffusione del barocco romano nel viceregno
del Marchese del Carpio, in Ein Regisseur (note 56 above), pp. 193-219, listed
the 1691 plan of Bari by Philipp Schor in a useful catalogue of the artist’s
works. Independently of Cappellieri’s own finding, I was led to the drawing,
shelfmarked MPD VI-26, by the detailed reference found in the inventory
owed to María Concepción Álvarez Terán, Mapas, planos y dibujos (año 15031805) del Archivo General de Simancas, vol. 1, Valladolid 1980, p. 166. This
author attributed in “‘Sin atender a la distancia de payses’… El fasto nupcial
de los Príncipes de Feroleto entre Nápoles y Mirándola”, Reales Sitios, 43.167
(January-March 2006), pp. 28-49, a drawing with two “letti da parata” (BNN,
ms. XI.B.8) to Philipp Schor, assuming these were intended for the wedding
of Tommaso d’Aquino, 5th Prince of Castiglione di Calabria, in 1687. In retrospect, the iconographic and historical basis for the attribution would appear overriden by weighty stylistic evidence that points to an early to mid-seventeeth-century date. As a matter of fact, although regrettably overlooked by
this author, Renato Ruotolo, Due letti scultorei disegnati da Giacomo del Po,
in Antologia di Belle Arti, 52-56 (1996), pp. 100-03, had already published
the drawing with an attribution to Giacomo del Po, arguing that the beds
might have been commissioned by the Carafa di Maddaloni. Recently, Elio
Catello, Nota sull’attività extrapittorica di Giacomo del Po, in Ricerche sul ’600
Napoletano, 2007, pp. 41-44, supports unreservedly Ruotolo’s 1996 attribution. I am most grateful to Giulia Fusconi for bringing Catello’s recent article to my attention.
58
Gérard Labrot, Études napolitaines. Villages – Palais – Collections. XVIeXVIIIe siècles, Champ Vallon 1993, p. 263, found in Giacomo del Po’s postmortem inventory “Disegni di Cristofaro Scor di Trofei No 50”, none of which
have been so far successfully traced. Ursula Verena Fischer Pace, Disegni del
Seicento romano, Florence 1997, pp. 36-38 and fig. 17, catalogued a drawing
of a “carrozza di gala” as a possible drawing by Christoph Schor, agreeing
with Alvar González-Palacios’ prior attribution (1974) but stating that, not
knowing for whom the carriage was designed, “l’attribuzione deve rimanere
tuttora in sospeso.” Sabina de Cavi, 1718-1719. Interventi inediti di Cristoforo
Schor a Napoli durante il viceregno austriaco, in Ein Regisseur (note 56 above),
pp. 259-276, analyzes in detail the drawing’s technique, chronology, and purpose, reaching the conclusion that Christoph and/or his workshop may have
been involved at some point in some parts of the drawing.
59
Cesare Molinari, Le nozze degli dei: un saggio sul grande spettacolo italiano
nel Seicento, Roma 1968, figs. 234-43.
60
Fernández-Santos, in press (note 32 above), figs. 12 and 13.
61
Fernández-Santos, in press (note 32 above).
62
Sandro Benedetti, Architettura in Arcadia: poetica e formatività, in L’architettura dell’Arcadia nel Settecento Romano, Roma 1997, pp. 83-96 (pp. 87-91).
63
Andrea Magliar’s engraving of Sanfelice’s funeral décor for the façade was
published by Mancini 1968 (note 44 above), p. 131 (fig. 106).
64
Alba Cappellieri, Filippo e Cristoforo Schor, ‘Regi Architetti e Ingegneri’ alla Corte di Napoli, in Capolavori in festa: Effimero barocco a Largo di Palazzo
(1683-1759) (exh. cat. Naples 1997-98), Naples 1997, pp. 73-89 (p. 78).
65
Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, Entwurff einer historischen Architectur…, Leipzig 1725, IV, plate XXI.
66
I found a series of phytomorphic ornamental letters (by Philipp Schor?) in
a Spanish translation of an arrêt of the Parisian Parliament (dated March 31st,
1681) printed by François Muguet. The ms. translation was commissioned by
the Spanish ambassador in Rome, the marquis del Carpio, who had it posted
expeditiously to Madrid on May 11th, 1681 (AGS, Estado, leg, 3064). The complete frontispiece of the Carpio codex at the Society of Antiquaries of London is reproduced by Fusconi (in these proceedings), fig. 5. The engraving
by Francesco De Grado of C. Schor’s catafalque in honor of Giuseppe Capece
and Carlo Di Sangro at S. Domenico Maggiore (March 23rd, 1708) was reproduced by Mancini 1968 (note 44 above), p. 277 (fig. 20).
67
Fernández-Santos, in press (note 32 above).
68
Anna Maria Giorgetti Vichi, Gli arcadi dal 1690 al 1800: Onomasticon, Roma 1977, p. 154. Juan Bautista and Sebastián de Villarreal y Gamboa (cfr. note
6 above) were brothers of Basque origin.
69
Giovan Mario Crescimbeni, Notizie istoriche degli arcadi morti, Roma 172021, I, pp. 361-364 (p. 363), remembers fondly Azzolini’s garden at the Palazzo Riario alla Lungara where he “apparecchiò il primo rustico Teatro, il quale
se non fu il più magnifico, che abbia avuto l’Arcadia, fu certamente il più grato alla semplicità del suo Instituto, che allora esattamente osservavasi.” Giorgetti 1977 (note 68 above), p. 75. See also note 74 below.
70
Giorgetti 1977 (note 68 above), pp. 75, 108, 122, 205, and 226.
71
Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni, L’Arcadia del Canonico Gio. Mario Crescimbeni Custode della medesima Arcadia …, Rome 1711, I, pp. 11-13, prosa IV:
Descrizione di parte della Stanza del Serbatoio, ove si sono affissi i Ritratti
degli Acclamati (p. 12).
72
Cappellieri 1997 (note 64 above), p. 78. Mancini 1968 (note 44 above), p. 143.
73
Ludovico Zorzi, La crisi del melodramma alla fine dell’età barocca, in FagioTHE “BUEN GUSTO ROMANO” OF THE VICEROYS
lo/Madonna 1985 (note 41 above), pp. 3-12. Benedetti 1997 (note 62 above), p.
94, writes insightfully about the “sdrammatizzazione fontaniana del barocco.”
74
ASR, Archivio Cartari-Febei, vol. 103 (1691(I)), fol. 116v. Cartari recorded
that on Sunday May 27th, 1691, at 22 hours: “[…] intervenni all’Accademia di
Belle Lettere, ò sia Conuersatione (come dicono) delli Pastori d’Arcadia,
trasportata per la prima uolta dal Giardino de’ Mattei alla Nauicella al Giardino del Palazzo del sig.r Marchese Riario (habitato hora dal S. Pompeo Azzolini herede della Regina di Suetia) alla Lungara, habitato, mentre uisse, dalla Maestà della detta Regina di Svetia, Christina. Fù tenuta in un Praticello ricoperto da gli alberi, nel quale non era alcuna sedia, nè scabello, nè banco; si’
che gli Accademici, e tutti gli uditori sedendo in terra formando un gran circolo, dissero all’usanza de’ Pastori; il che non parue troppo conueniente […]”
75
Domenico d’Aulisio, Ragionamenti intorno ai principj della Filosofia e Teologia degli Assirj…, in Miscellanea di varie operette…, Venezia, Tommaso Bettinelli, 1740-42, VI, pp. 295-344 (p. 296): “[…] tutti sedevano in giro in sedie
di velluto chermisì, eguali a quella del Vicerè. Il Duca di Popoli, Generale
dell’Armi, assisteva in piedi appoggiato alla spalliera della di lui sedia; ma il
Prencipe di Castiglione, Generale della Cavalleria, sedea, perch’egli era Accademico.” It must be said, however, that Castiglione was not promoted to
the command of the Neapolitan cavalry until 1702, at which point the Accademia Palatina was no longer in session and Medinaceli had left Naples for
good.
76
Giannone 1723 (note 22 above), IV, p. 477, declared that “La pompa, ed il
fasto della sua Corte fu veramente regale, e magnifica, nè in altri tempi fu veduta presso noi altra più numerosa, e splendida.” Before arriving in Naples
and in spite of financial shortfall Medinaceli maintained a lavish “famiglia” in
Rome. In a 1690 document we find 140 “souls” living at the Palazzo di Spagna.
AVR, Sant Andrea delle Fratte, Stati d’anime, vol. 75 (1690-91), fol. 38v.
77
On March 23rd and April 6th Francesco Milano was given 3,000 ducats to
pay for material and labor costs derived from the ongoing assembling of the
royal carriages. Naples, Archivio di Stato (hereafter cited as ASN), Regia Camera della Sommaria, Liquidazione dei conti, Cedole della Tesoreria, 526 (1702),
fols. 312v-313r. See Documentary Appendix.
78
Bologna, Francesco Solimena, Naples 1958, pp. 94-99 and passim. Bologna
1982 (note 30 above), pp. 46-51. Ferdinando Bologna, Solimena e gli altri, durante il viceregno austriaco, in Settecento napoletano: sulle ali dell’aquila imperiale 1707-1734 (exh. cat. Vienna / Naples, 1993-94), ed. by W. Prohaska
and N. Spinosa, Naples 1994, pp. 57-75 (pp. 60-66).
79
The letter was dated October 5th, 1696. Medinaceli did not mince words:
“[…] Nunca dudè en quien hauia de recaer la plaza del Consejo [Consiglio di
Santa Chiara] pues Jordan con sus colores borra toda la literatura y buenas
partes de los q[ue] no son sus yernos; el [i.e. Francisco de Torrejón y Peñalosa]
q[ue] ahora ha logrado esta conveniencia no es de lo peor q[ue] pudo buscar
// pues si se aplica, y no se fia al fauor de su suegro, podrà ser vtil, pues de los
empleos q[ue] ha tenido ha dado buena quenta.” ADM, SH, leg. 16.
80
“Mas otra [pintura] de fran.co Solimene de quatro pies de alto y zerca de
tres de ancho / marco tallado y dorado con diferentes / figuras q[ue] adornan vna medalla n.o 101 … 1∂500 [reales]” (ADM, SH, leg. 85, r. 1, fol. 88r).
See Lleó Cañal 1989 (note 13 above), p. 114, §135, who has transcribed “Solimena” instead of “Solimene.”.
81
Bologna 1958 (note 78 above), pp. 85-86, 185, 225, and fig. 119. Viktor N.
Lazarev, Ein Bild des Francesco Solimena, in Belvedere: Monatsschrift für
Sammler und Kunstfreunde, 7 (1925), pp. 120-126. Bernardo de’ Dominici,
Vite de’ pittori, scultori, ed architetti napoletani, Naples 1742, II, pp. 593-594.
Andrea Caravita, I codici e le arti a Monte Cassino, Montecassino 1870, III,
pp. 369-387.
82
The Hermitage canvas included 9 figures and 4 putti, whereas the smaller
paintings share the presence of 3 figures and either 3 or 4 putti. Andrea Emiliani, La Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna, Bologna 1967, p. 393 and fig. 317.
Mario Alberto Pavone, Francesco Solimena in Donnalbina (I), in “Studi di Storia dell’Arte”, 1 (1990), pp. 203-242 (p. 228, fig. 10). W. Prohaska, “Allegoria del regno degli Asburgo a Napoli”, in Settecento napoletano 1994 (note 78
above), pp. 198-199, cat. no. 33.
83
Bologna 1994 (note 78 above), p. 62, remarks that the date was found “‘al
disotto della cornice’, posto ben strano!”. The contrary opinion is held by
Svetlana N. Vsevolozhskaya, Italian Painting. The Hermitage, Leningrad 1984,
p. 252 (no. 152) and fig. 152, who in 1981 published her discovery of the
“1690” date and, apparently, also a “1701” date. Pavone 1990 (note 82 above),
pp. 207 and 218, note 45, supports Vsevolozhskaya’s conclusions.
84
On May 7th, 1693, Juan de Angulo on behalf of Charles II wrote to the count
of Santisteban asking for the names of the ablest painters in Naples. The viceroy
replied that Solimena was “el de ma.r auilidad”, followed by Paolo De Matteis. He also specified that both were willing to travel to Madrid and that samples of their paintings would be sent at the earliest opportunity. ADM, Sección Histórica, leg. 79.
85
De’ Dominici 1742 (note 81 above) does not mention such a painting.
86
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna, B 633 [inv. n. 24375]. Charcoal,
ink, and watercolor wash on paper, measuring 35.2x25.2 cm. See Rossana
Muzii, Apoteosi di Luigi XIV, in Settecento napoletano 1994 (note 78 above),
p. 330, cat. no. 97.
87
Vita del Cavalier Francesco Solimena…, in De’ Dominici 1742 (note 81 above),
pp. 579-638.
88
My thanks to Marcello Castrichini (Casa Editrice Ediart, Todi).
89
Prohaska 1994 (note 82 above), p. 198, describes the allegorical figure as
“Hispania-Minerva, o anche Fortitudo”.
237
In contrast to the simplified but accurate profile of Castel Nuovo in the
small-format paintings, the outline of the fortress in the Hermitage painting
lacks one of two flank bastions and rests on a monticule located behind an
arch-shaped bridge. Indeed, it looks as if Solimena attempted to paint a nondescript castle and battle scene, one that would not be objectionable to use
in a painting commissioned in order to be presented by a papal nunzio in
Paris to the French king.
91
Sold at Christie’s New York on June 3rd, 1987 (Important Paintings by Old
Masters, no. 129).
92
Housed at the National Gallery, London (NG6521). Bequeathed by Sir Philip
Hendy, the painting entered the collection in 1989. Oil on canvas measuring
47x58.5 cm. Ferdinando Bologna, Solimena’s ‘Solomon Worshipping the Pagan
Gods’ in Detroit, in “The Art Quarterly”, 31.1 (1968), pp. 35-62 (p. 57, fig. 21).
93
Oil on copper measuring 42x59 cm.
94
Prohaska 1994 (note 82 above), p. 198, hesitates between ca. 1700 (date of
Charles II’s death) or the period immediately after, arguing that it may be connected to the “rivendicazione asburgica di Napoli.” I would discard the existence of contacts between Solimena and philo-Austrian patrons before 1707.
95
Emiliani 1967 (note 82 above), p. 396: Francesco Solimena (attr)., Apoteosi
del Principe Eugenio di Savoia. Oil on canvas measuring 32x46 cm. Prohaska
1994 (note 82 above), p. 198, agrees with Bologna’s rejection of Emiliani’s
identification of the suject as Eugene of Savoy.
96
Caravita 1870 (note 81 above), pp. 380-84. Tommaso’s mother, Giovanna
Battista d’Aquino, owned a painting of Rebecca by Solimena. See Gèrard
Labrot, Collections of Paintings in Naples 1600-1780, Munich/London/New
York/Paris, pp. 268-270 (§52:0004). We lack, however, an inventory of the
prince’s own collection.
97
Fernández-Santos 2006 (note 37 above), pp. 31, 38-40, and 43 (notes 4244).
98
Tommaso d’Aquinos’s “nuptial” portrait was engraved in 1687-88 by Andrea Magliar (reproduced in ibid. p. 28). Niccolò Partenio Giannettasio SJ,
Bellica, Naples 1699, includes a portrait of Castiglione engraved by Andrea
Magliar (fig. 13). A third engraved portrait (measuring 8.7x10.8 cm), clearly
copied from the 1699 one by Magliar, is found in Giacinto Gimma, Elogj accademici della Società degli Spensierati di Rossano…, Naples 1703, II, p. 315.
99
Arguably, a close-up examination of the damaged painting would help discard or substantiate the hypothetical identification proposed here. It must be
emphasized that the oval in grisaille with a bust portrait, here identified as
Castiglione’s, is diminutive, measuring approximately 12 cm in height, of which
the head takes up less than one third. The sitter’s large eyes, pleasant features,
hardly prominent nose, little mouth, and slight double chin are recognizable
in the grisaille oval, which in some respects is closer to the earlier engraved
portrait of 1687-88.
100
Bologna 1982 (note 30 above), p. 43. Pavone 1990 (note 82 above), p. 217
(note 30) and fig. 10.
101
De’ Dominici 1742 (note 81 above), p. 605.
102
Even more so considering that Philip’s rights to the Spanish throne were
never officially recognized by Madrid, and that Charles II secretly designated
Philip his heir only within weeks of his death on the advice of Pope Innocent
XII, which was requested and sent in utter secrecy by the duke of Uceda,
Spanish ambassador in Rome. When he became king of Spain, Philip V was
within days of his seventeenth birthday whereas the features of the evidently
younger sitter are not at all close to those reflected in the 1701 engraving by
Solimena and Aquila. See note 104 below.
103
Bologna 1982 (note 30 above), pp. 37-43.
104
The Duke of Uceda, Spanish ambassador in Rome, sent a dispatch to the
Duke of Medinaceli with news of Charles II’s death and Philippe d’Anjou’s
declaration as sole and universal heir of the Spanish monarchy. The Giornale
di Napoli, November 24th, 1700 [no. 47] specifies that the bearer of the “funestissimo avviso” arrived in Naples on the evening of November 20th, 1700.
105
The earliest letter in which Manuel de Sentmenat-Oms de Santapau i de
Lanuza, 1st Marquis of Castelldosrius, mentions Medinaceli’s order of Philip
V’s portrait is dated Paris December 21st, 1700: “[…] Siento sumamente que
este Ex.rio que buelue, no pueda lleuar â V.E. (como deseaua lo hiciese) el retrato de nrô Rey, porque el ôriginal que hà sacado vn Zelebre pintor desta
Corte, no està acauado avn, Y por esta causa, no puede dar copia de el, Y solicitando yo q[ue] lo Ejecutase q.to // antes, me hà respondido q es imposible,
hasta tenerle concluydo, y cumplido el con el Xpmô, que le hà ordenado de
nueuo le hiciese de cuerpo entero con Golilla, pero me hà ofrezido que inmediatamente me sacarà vno, que remitire â V.E. assi q[ue] me le entregue,
en la primera ocassion, porque solo hay este vnico en esta Corte, pues los demas que corren, no son parecidos, ni valen nada, siendo retratos de S. Mg.d
quando tenia no mas de doze â 14- años, Yo quedo en cuidado de ôbedecer
â V.E. en esto […].” ADM, SH, leg. 14, r. 1.
106
On January 4th, 1701, Medinaceli wrote to Castelldosrius: “[…] Acepto, y
espero con mucho gusto el retrato q[ue] V.E. ofreze embiarme del Rey nrô s.r
para tenerle parezido al original, y pido á V.E. me vaya auisando de todo lo
q[ue] ahy se fuere ofreziendo […].” On March 1st, also from Naples, the viceroy
responded: “[…] Por el cuidado de V.E. en solicitar al Pintor Rigau por el retrato del Rey nrô s.r doi á V.E. las grazias, y le pido no le deje de la mano para
q[ue] abreuie la obra, y nos la haga desear lo menos q[ue] pueda; […].” Replying from Paris a week later, on March 28th, Castelldosrius remarked: “[…]
No ay forma de que el Pinttor Rigau, âcaue con el enttrego del Rettratto del
Rey nrô s.or s.re que ynsto quanto caue, pero ni las Personas R.s han podido
conseguir aun; que entregue el primer Original, haziendonos su codizia la mala
90
238
obra, de que ttodos Experimentemos la faltta que nos haze, y a mi muy en
particular la de no // dejar seruido â VR como deseo. […].”
107
One possible candidate may be Charles Viennot, documented as an assistant in Rigaud’s workshop at the time. See Mary O’Neill, Three Drawings in
American Collections after Portraits by Rigaud, in “Master Drawings”, 22.2
(Summer 1984), pp. 186-194 (p. 193, note 28 and plate 28). On Louis XIV’s
commission of a full-length portrait of his grandson, see: Donald Posner, The
Genesis and Political Purposes of Rigaud’s Portraits of Louis XIV and Philip V,
in “La Gazette des Beaux-Arts”, 140 (February 1998), pp. 77-90.
108
Caravita 1870 (note 81 above), pp. 376 and 383, allows us to date Aquila’s
clandestine departure from Naples in 1702. His arrival in the same city is not
known, but must have surely taken place before June 10th, 1700.
109
Significantly, the editor Camillo Cavallo chose to dedicate the engraved allegory of the new Bourbon king by Solimena to Tommaso d’Aquino, Prince
of Castiglione, a very active member of the Accademia dell’Arcadia, and by
far the highest-ranking aristocrat to become a member of Medinaceli’s Accademia Palatina, whose meetings at Palazzo Reale he attended regularly since
March 1698 (cfr. note 75 above). See also Fernández-Santos 2006 (note 37
above), p. 42 (note 23).
110
Fernández-Santos 2006 (note 37 above), p. 41 (note 16).
111
Cfr. for example Simon Thomassin’s well-known engraved portrait, based
on a painting by François de Troy (1700). BNM, IH/2949/6.
112
Josef Ferdinand was born in Vienna on October 28th, 1692.
113
Charles II signed his third and last testament on October 3rd and died on
November 1st, 1700.
114
Pierre Bautier, Un portrait du prince Joseph-Ferdinand de Bavière (1692-1699)
au Musée Communal de Bruxelles, in “Revue belge d’Archéologie et d’Histoire de l’Art”, 15.1-2 (1945), pp. 61-64.
115
Measuring 28x18 cm. Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich (inv. no.
102869). I owe this information to Dr. Elisabeth Stürmer.
116
It is perhaps significant to recall that Medinaceli owned an unidentified
portrait by Gascar (cfr. note 17 above).
117
My thanks to Andreas von Majewski and Brigitte Schuhbauer (Wittelsbacher
Ausgleichfonds, Munich).
118
The Hermitage canvas measures 104x76 cm. Medinaceli’s painting (cfr. note
80 above) was said to measure 4 Castilian feet in height (111.6 cm) by “almost” 3 in width (i.e. “almost” 83.7 cm.). It cannot be ruled out that the Albertina drawing (note 88 above) may in fact refer to both Medinaceli’s and
Gualtieri’s canvases. Medinaceli’s painting must have been finished prior to
his definitive departure from Naples on February 28th, 1702.
119
Lezioni dell’Accademia (note 21 above), pp. 47-49, 152-156, 160-172, 257259, and 358-360.
120
The fact that Fame in Aquila’s engraving is reversed with respect to the
Hermitage canvas would imply that the latter served as basis for the former.
Likewise, the image in the engraving of Hispania-Minerva accompanied by a
lion was derived from the same figure appearing in the series of small-format
allegories.
121
De’ Dominici 1742 (note 81 above), p. 644. See Rossana Muzii Cavallo,
Disegni del Sanfelice al Museo di Capodimonte, in “Napoli Nobilissima”, 21.56 (1982), pp. 219-230.
122
Tomaso Montanari, Precisazioni e nuovi documenti sulla collezione di disegni e stampe di Cristina di Svezia, in “Prospettiva: Rivista di storia dell’arte
antica e moderna”, 79 (July 1995), pp. 62-77 (p. 64).
123
De’ Dominici 1742 (note 81 above), p. 593, described cardinal Lorenzo Casoni’s friendly rapport with Solimena (“suo amicissimo sin dacchè fu Nunzio
in Napoli.”) Bologna 1982 (note 30 above), p. 45.
124
Significantly, the post-quem date proposed by Allan Braham and Hellmut
Hager, Carlo Fontana: The Drawings at Windsor Castle, London 1977, pp. 6566 and figs. 70-74, for Fontana’s unexecuted project for the apse of the Neapolitan Duomo, 1691, coincides with cardinal Giacomo Cantelmo Stuart’s transferal to Naples, which took place on July 23rd, 1691. The cardinal’s younger
brother, Restaino, 7th Duke of Popoli and General of the Neapolitan Artillery,
was one of Medinaceli’s trusted advisors.
125
Mancini 1968 (note 44 above), pp. 130 (fig. 104) and 137. My thanks to
Angela Pinto (BNN). Geronimo d’Angelis, Funerali fatti da questa Fedelissima città di Napoli alla Felice Memoria di Carlo II Re delle Spagne dentro l’insigne Cappella del Tesoro di essa a 16. Marzo 1701, Naples 1701, describes
summarily the catalque as “proporzionat[o], se non alla qualità del soggetto,
almeno alla capacità del luoco.” I owe this information to Giulia Fusconi, who
consulted D’Angelis’ rare opuscule at the Biblioteca Casanatense (Rome).
126
“[…] il vero Tesoro dell’vrna, & Effigie del defonto Monarca, coronata &
arricchita delle sue Insegne Reali, e dall’Imprese di tutti I suoi Regni […]” (ibid.).
127
I’m referring to the one published by Prohaska 1994 (note 82 above), pp.
198-199, cat. no. 33.
128
Sara Muniain Ederra, Arquitectura de la Arcadia y crisis de la magnificencia: Las exequias de Luis I y Felipe V en Roma, in “Römische Historische Mitteilungen”, 47 (2005), pp. 279-334 (p. 304-305, 324, 326, and note 131).
129
Saavedra Fajardo (note 38 above), emblem XXXI (Existimatione Nixa).
130
Saavedra Fajardo (note 38 above), emblem XXX (Fulcitur Experientiis).
131
Claude-François Ménestrier SJ, La devise du roy justifiée, Paris 1679, pp.
144-45 (§121) links the image of the sun with the motto “Sibi semper idem
et orbi”, understood to refer to “la constance” of Louis XIV. Were the sun
and the motto “Semper Idem” in the Neapolitan catafalque meant to be read
as a veiled allusion to Louis XIV?
132
Gimma 1703 (note 98 above).
JORGE FERNÁNDEZ-SANTOS ORTIZ-IRIBAS