Renaissance Naples: Crucible of Cultures

Excellent online study morning from Paula and Geoff Nuttall looking at the history and art of Naples from the 13th to 15th century.

Geoff started the morning by looking at the Angevin’s who ruled the city from 1266 to 1435 guiding us through the complicated order of succession covering both the early French Angevins and the later Durazzo branch of the family from Hungary and Croatia. He outlined their building work in the city and looked in particular at the patronage of the civil servants around King Ladislav.

I was delighted that he spent quite a lot of time talking about the tomb shown here for Admiral Antonio Baboccio de Piperno which I had discovered a few years ago and loved but I didn’t know a lot about it. He talked us through the imagery in some detail.

Paula then took over looking at the Aragonese rulers of the city from 1442 to about 1504 focusing on Alfonso I including his work to rebuild the Castel Nuovo, his commissioned of medals from Pisanello, his interest in Northern European art and his love of books.

I was most intrigued in her talk by another tomb which I’ve not seen for Cardinal Oliviero Carafa in the crypt of the cathedral, a fabulous, life -sized kneeling figure. A great excuse to return to Naples, not that I need one!

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