Art on the Grand Tour. Week 9: Art, Churches and Artists in Naples

Caravaggio and the Neapolitan Tradition. 

Caravaggio, The Flagellation of Christ, 1607-10, Naples, Capodimonte, oil on canvas, 286 x 213 cms.

 Andrea Vocarro, The Martyrdom of St Sebastian, c.1640, Oil on canvas, 130 x 102 cm, Private collection.

Att to Caravaggio, The Tooth-Puller, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, on deposit at the Palazzo di Montecitorio, Rome, oil on canvas, 140 x 195 cm.

Gaspare Traversi, The Sitting, 1754, Musée du Louvre, Paris, Oil on canvas, 99 x 130 cm.

As Mini Gregori points out, Caravaggio’s influence on the local Neapolitan school was felt for generations afterwards despite attempts to “sweeten the style.”[1] Even a painter influenced by Venetian colourism and inclined towards the rococo as Solimena could turn to Caravaggio as a model in his John the Baptist of the following century.  Then there is the influence of Caravaggio on the realists of the 18^th century like Gaspare Traversi whose amusing, gently ironic vignettes of social situations suggest a painter who has studied Caravaggio and read Enlightenment wits like Voltaire. It was the 17^th century critic Giovanni Bellori who was to first to publish observations- albeit sketchy and incomplete- on Caravaggio’s work in the churches of Naples in 1672. For example, The Flagellation was first seen by Bellori in S. Dominico Maggiore. Later the theologian De Dominici (1742-45) says the painting is much admired despite the “ignoble realism” of Christ in it. This criticism of the Christ was not sustained since the Frenchman Cochin visiting it in 1763 describes the picture as well composed and he is appreciative of the monumentality of the figure of Christ; he also observes that the colouring had darkened. The Flagellation was probably painted in Naples in 1607 during the artist’s first visit. Copies were made of it and it influenced a number of later Neapolitan painters like Andrea Vaccaro whose Martyrdom of St Sebastian of 1640 recalls the composition. Critics also noted Caravaggio’s paintings outside the churches such as the Nancy Annunciation which may be the last religious picture Caravaggio painted in Naples. 

The Early 18^th Century Neapolitan Schools of Painting: Giordano, Solimena and Francesco de Mura. 

 Luca Giordano, Perseus Fighting Phineus and his Companions, c. 1670, National Gallery, London, Oil on canvas, 285 x 366 cm.

 Francesco Solimena, Birth of the Virgin, 1696, Metropolitan Museum, New York, oil on canvas, 204.5 x 170.8 cm.

 Nicolas Poussin, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt, c. 1627, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1996), oil on canvas, Oil on canvas, 76.2 x 63.5 cm.

Allan Ramsay, Portrait of the Artist's Wife, 1754-55, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, Oil on canvas, 76 x 64 cm.

One of the most important trends in 18^th century Italian painting was the increase in German patronage, partly in response to the decline of papal cultural support. [2]  Rome, Bologna and Venice felt the effects of this the most, but Naples was affected too. Neapolitan artists like Luca Giordano and Francesco Solimena were sought after by northern European monarchs. Luca Giordano, sometimes called “Luca, fa presto” because of his rapid execution, was born in Naples in 1634. Trained in the circle of Ribera, he left to study in Rome but was back in Naples in 1653. Giordano oscillated between the high baroque of Pietro da Cortona and the naturalism of Ribera, and he even studied paintings by Poussin in Neapolitan private collections. Giordano stayed in Naples until 1692 when he was summoned to Spain by Charles II. One of his greatest compositions is the exciting Perseus and Phineas in the National Gallery. After Giordano, Solimena was the leading Neapolitan painter of the first half of the 18th century. In a long and extremely productive career he painted frescoes in many of the great churches in Naples, and he became one of the wealthiest and most famous European artists of his day. His vigorous style, often marked by dramatic lighting, owed much to the example of Giordano and Preti, but it also has a firmness of structure and clarity of draughtsmanship that shows his allegiance to the classical tradition of Raphael and Annibale Carracci. Solimena's paintings were in demand all over Europe, and his international influence was spread also by his celebrity as teacher. The Scottish painter Allen Ramsay was among his pupils and from the older master he learnt the importance of drawing;[3] Fragonard also copied his work in S. Paolo Maggiore. Finally, Solimena’s student Francesco di Mura was taught initially in the workshop of Domenico Viola at Naples, but in 1708 he entered Solimena’s studio where he earned the trust and respect of the master. At Francesco followed closely Solimena's monumental Baroque manner, as in the frescoes (1715) in S Nicola alla Carità in Naples, but later developed a more controlled and refined style of rhythmical lines, light and airy colours and delicate psychological overtones. He employed this new style in his ten canvases of the Virtues and his vast Adoration of the Magi (all 1728; Naples, S Maria Donnaromita) and, above all, in his frescoes of the Adoration of the Magi in the apsidal dome of the church of the Nunziatella, Naples (1732; in situ). De Mura was also active as a portrait painter; his Portrait of the Artist's Wife (c. 1730; Naples, Pio Monte della Misericordia) and Self-portrait (c. 1730; Florence, Uffizi) are both very much in Solimena's manner.

Foreign Artists in Naples. 

Jean Honoré Fragonard, Angels making music, after Francesco Solimena, London Art Market, Black chalk, a reworked counterproof, 27.3 × 16.9 cm.

 Jean Honoré Fragonard, A Fisherman Leaning on an Oar, 1774, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, red chalk, 50.5 x 38.3 cm.

Jean Honoré Fragonard, Abbé de Saint-Non (Fanciful Figure), 1769, Musée du Louvre, Paris, Oil on canvas, 80 x 65 cm. 

G. F. Doyen, The Miracle of the Fervent, 1767, Saint-Roch, Paris, Oil on canvas, 665 x 450 cm.

As Watch points out, in Rome artistic nationalities tended to stick together: the French stayed in their academies; the Germans in their own coffee house; and the English and Scots attended their own functions. Naples wasn’t like that due to “a lack of nationalistic institutions.”[4] Watch cites a visit by the Welsh artist Thomas Jones to Angelica Kauffman’s residence. There he met an Italian doctor who had studied in England, a Spanish officer of the army, two Polish artists, an Italian painter, and the French volcano painter, M de Volaire. Not one of these persons was a Neapolitan painter, and it is almost certainly the case that that school of Neapolitan painting ended with the death of Solimena in 1743. Despite the local decline, Naples was visited by many art students interested in the art of the past, as well as the early 18^th century school of Solimena. The French painter Doyen is reported to have made 6 oil sketches after Luca Giordano and Solimena in 1754, which clearly served him well when he painted his dramatic Miracle of the Ardents in Paris in 1767. From 1750 onwards, members of the French Academy in Rome could be granted a month’s leave to visit Naples; after 1787 this became compulsory and could even extend to another month.  Another French artist interested in Solimena was Fragonard who obtained permission to study in the galleries of the Capodimonte, probably on his second visit Between April/June, 1774.  Not impressed by his paintings, the French Academy were more approving of his drawings, some of which he did for his friend the Abbe de Saint-Non who travelled round Italy with the artist.[5]  

What Did Visitors See in Naples (1) Churches and Basilicas.

Naples Cathedral.

Domenichino, Dome of Tresoro, c. 1633, Naples Cathedral, fresco.

Caravaggio, The Seven Acts of Mercy, 1607, Pio Monte Della Misericordia, oil on canvas, 387 x 256 cm.

 Giovanni Battista Caraciolo, The Liberation of St Peter, Church of the Pio Monte della Misericordia, Naples, oil on canvas, 310 x 207 cms.

Naples is blessed with many fine churches including Naples Cathedral built in 1272, and dedicated to the Virgin Mary despite its associations with S Gennaro (St Januarius), the city’s patron saint. This church boasts frescos with scenes from the life of San Gennaro by the Bolognese artist Domenichino who left Rome for Naples in 1630. Domenichino’s frescoes were of paramount importance for French artists in the 18^th century- we saw Robert copying Domenichino’s work in S Andrea della Valle in Rome and Domenichino’s work in Naples Cathedral might be regarded as an extension of that.[6] Some drawings securely attributed to David are copies after Domenichino’s San Gennaro Received by Christ which proves the significance of the painter to French 18^th century artists. Not only French artists esteemed these frescos, but also British artists. Gavin Hamilton who visited Naples in 1748 singled out Domenichino for high praise which Watch sees as precocious for 1748. 

What Did Visitors See in Naples (2) Galleries and Collections.

 Photo of Capodimonte Museum.

 Titian, Pope Paul III with his Grandsons Alessandro and Ottavio Farnese, 1546, Capodimonte, Naples, Oil on canvas, 210 x 174 cm.

Raphael and Workshop? Holy Family (“Madonna of Divine Love”), 1516, Capodimonte, Naples, oil on panel, 140 x 109 cms.

Salvator Rosa, View of the Gulf of Salerno, 1640-45, Museo del Prado, Madrid, Oil on canvas, 170 x 260 cm.

The most important collection visited in Naples was that housed in the Capodimonte Palace. This huge collection dates back to 1738, when King Charles VII of Naples and Sicily (later Charles III, king of Spain) decided to build a hunting lodge on the Capodimonte hill, but then decided that he would instead build a grand palace, partly because his existing residence, the Palace of Portici, was too small to accommodate his court, and partly because he needed somewhere to house the fabulous Farnese art collection which he had inherited from his mother, Elisabetta Farnese, last descendant of the sovereign ducal family of Parma. Over the years the palace was enlarged and filled with more art. In 1787, on the advice of the German artist, Jacob Philipp Hackert, a laboratory for the restoration of paintings was created. We know that visitors on the Grand Tour like Joseph Wright made notes on the collection; he was especially interested in works by Ribera and Salvator Rosa, two leading baroque artists. Interest in Rosa was mainly by vedutisti or view painters who heavily influenced their representations of the landscape around Naples. By contrast, when he visited Naples in 1775, the American artist John Singleton Copley favoured more renaissance fare: Raphael’s Holy Family, Titian’s Danae and Correggio’s Marriage of St Catherine. Another one of Correggio’s admirers was Angelica Kauffman who was granted permission to copy works in the Capodimonte in 1763, though these copies are lost, probably sold to British tourists on the Neapolitan leg of the Grand Tour.

Slides. 

1)      Caravaggio, The Flagellation of Christ, 1607-10, Naples, Capodimonte, oil on canvas, 286 x 213 cms.

2)      Andrea Vocarro, The Martyrdom of St Sebastian, c.1640, Oil on canvas, 130 x 102 cm, Private collection.

3)      Caravaggio, The Annunciation, 1608-09, Oil on canvas, 285 x 205 cm, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nancy.

4)      Caravaggio, The Tooth-Puller, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, on deposit at the Palazzo di Montecitorio, Rome, oil on canvas, 140 x 195 cm.

5)      Gaspare Traversi, The Sitting, 1754, Musée du Louvre, Paris, Oil on canvas, 99 x 130 cm.

6)      Gaspare Traversi, Reading a Letter, 1741-60, The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Oil on canvas, 105 x 140 cm.

7)      Guiseppe Bonito, The Repose of the Huntsmen, c. 1740, Oil on canvas, 167 x 234 cm, Private collection.

8)      Luca Giordano, The Entombment, 1658-1662, Detroit Institute of Arts, oil on canvas, 211 x 160 cms.

9)      Luca Giordano, Bacchus and Ariadne, 1674-77, Herbert Art Gallery, Coventry, 302 x 582.5 cm.

10)   Luca Giordano, Perseus Fighting Phineus and his Companions, c. 1670, National Gallery, London, Oil on canvas, 285 x 366 cm.

11)   Francesco Solimena, Birth of the Virgin, 1696, Metropolitan Museum, New York, oil on canvas, 204.5 x 170.8 cm.

12)   Francesco Solimena, John the Baptist, Museo del Prado, Madrid, Oil on canvas, 83 x 70 cm.

13)   Francesco Solimena, Judith with the Head of Holofernes, 1728-33, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna , Oil on canvas, 105 x 130 cm.

14)   Jean Honoré Fragonard, Angels making music, after Francesco Solimena, London Art Market, Black chalk, a reworked counterproof, 27.3 × 16.9 cm.

15)   Jean Honoré Fragonard, A Fisherman Leaning on an Oar, 1774, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, red chalk, 50.5 x 38.3 cm.

16)   Jean Honoré Fragonard, Abbé de Saint-Non (Fanciful Figure), 1769, Musée du Louvre, Paris, Oil on canvas, 80 x 65 cm.

17)   G. F. Doyen, The Miracle of the Fervent, 1767, Saint-Roch, Paris, Oil on canvas, 665 x 450 cm.

18)   Gavin Hamilton, Andromache Mourning the Death of Hector, c. 1759, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, Oil on canvas, 64.2 x 98,5 cms.

19)   Nicolas Poussin, The Death of Germanicus, 1628-9, Minneapolis Institute of Art, oil on canvas, 148 x 198 cms.  

20)   Nicolas Poussin, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt, c. 1627, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1996), oil on canvas, Oil on canvas, 76.2 x 63.5 cm.

21)   Allan Ramsay, Portrait of the Artist's Wife, 1754-55, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, Oil on canvas, 76 x 64 cm.

22)   Francesco de Mura, Holy Family with the Infant St John the Baptist, 1760s, Private Collection, Oil on canvas, 76 x 63 cm.

23)   Naples Cathedral.

24)   Treasure of San Gennaro (Januarius).

25)   Artemisia Gentileschi, St Januarius in the Amphitheatre, Capodimonte, c. 1634-40, Naples, oil on canvas, 300 x 200 cms.

26)   Miracle of the Liquefaction of St Januarius.

27)   Domenichino, Dome of Tresoro, c. 1633, Naples Cathedral, fresco.

28)   Interior of Pio Monte Della Misericordia, Naples with Caravaggio’s altarpiece.

29)   Caravaggio, The Seven Acts of Mercy, 1607, Pio Monte Della Misericordia, oil on canvas, 387 x 256 cm.

30)   Giovanni Battista Caraciolo, The Liberation of St Peter, Church of the Pio Monte della Misericordia, Naples, oil on canvas, 310 x 207 cms.

31)   Francesco Solimena, the Trinity, the Madonna and St Dominic, c. 1690, Fresco, Sacristy of San Domenico Maggiore, Naples.

32)   Photo of Capodimonte Museum.

33)   Francesco Solimena, Portrait of Charles III, of Habsburg, c. 1707, Private Collection, Oil on canvas, 188 x 127 cm.

34)   Titian, Pope Paul III with his Grandsons Alessandro and Ottavio Farnese, 1546, Capodimonte, Naples, Oil on canvas, 210 x 174 cm.

35)   Raphael and Workshop? Holy Family (“Madonna of Divine Love”), 1516, Capodimonte, Naples, oil on panel, 140 x 109 cms.

36)   Titian, Danaë with Eros, 1544, Capodimonte, Naples, oil on canvas, 120 x 172 cms.

37)   Salvator Rosa, View of the Gulf of Salerno, 1640-45, Museo del Prado, Madrid, Oil on canvas, 170 x 260 cm.

38)   Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith Beheading Holofernes, 1611-12, Capodimonte, Naples, Oil on canvas, 158. 8 x 125.5 cm.

---

[1] Mina Gregori, “Caravaggio and Naples” in Painting in Naples: From Caravaggio to Giordano, (RA, 1982), 40.

[2] On German patronage and 18^th century Italian painting, see Francis Haskell, Patrons and Painters, 194.

[3] Duncan Macmillian, Painting in Scotland: The Golden Age (Phaidon, 1986), 19.

[4] Peter Watch, “Foreign Artists at Naples 1750-1799”, Burlington Magazine, Vol 121, No. 913, 247-256.

[5] Michael Levey, Painting and Sculpture in France 1700-1789, (Yale, 1972), 267.

[6] Clovis Whitfield, Painting in Naples, 152.