Committenza, collezionismo ed esportazioni di opere d'arte nella Napoli degli Asburgo d'Austria (1707-1734)

At the dawn of the eighteenth century, following the death without heirs of the king of Spain Charles II of Habsburg, Europe was shaken by an internal struggle between two superpowers (France and the Empire) which upset the already precarious social and political equilibrium. This race towards territorial and commercial expansion also overwhelmed the Kingdom of Naples, which, from being a flourishing satellite of the crown of Spain, passed under the aegis of the Habsburgs of Austria. For the cadet son of Emperor Leopold I, Archduke Charles III of Habsburg (crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 1711), the conquest of Naples meant direct access to the immense artistic heritage of a city that had been a privileged square for Spanish patronage since the early seventeenth century and thus rivalled the coveted court of Madrid. Under the sign of dynastic continuity with the glorious Iberian predecessors, Charles kept the Spanish ceremonial, the viceregal office and all the pre-existing iconographic and cultural baggage, sending eleven viceroys to the capital of the kingdom, nobles of different nationalities and skilled diplomats, who boasted past experience at one of the most refined and feared Italian courts: Rome. The historiographical emptiness, due to the still approximate state of the documentary investigations and the fragmentation of the studies, had not yet allowed us to outline an overall picture of the story of the Austrian viceroys of Naples, seen through a perspective of particular importance: the patronage and the relationship with the active artists in the city. .. [edited by Author]