Castel Nuovo and Castel Capuano in Naples: the Transformation of Two Medieval Castles into...

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During the second half of the fifteenth century,the new Aragonese rulers of Naples, rather thandesigning and building completely new resi-dences, decided to transform the two main me-dieval castles in the capital in order to turn theminto magnificent seats of residence in the new all’antica style. The decision to select and reno-

vate Castel Nuovo and Castel Capuano amongthe various castles which existed in the city as themain residences for the royal family was not onlyjustified by the needs of defence, but also by thewish to take symbolic possession of the city byconsolidating a long-established tradition accord-ing to which Castel Nuovo and Castel Capuano

* I am very grateful to Francesco Caglioti, KathleenChris tian, Fulvio Lenzo, Fernando Loffredo, LorenzoMiletti and Francesco Senatore for their comments andsuggestions to my manuscript. I am also grateful to Ste-phen Parkin for revising my text. The research leadingto these results has received funding from the European

Research Council under the European Community’sSeventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007 – 2013) /ERC Grant agreement n° 263549; ERC-HistAntArtSIproject Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, di-rected by Bianca De Divitiis.

Bianca De Divitiis

Castel Nuovo and Castel Capuano in Naples: the Transformation of Two Medieval Castles into »all’antica« Residences for the Aragonese Royals*

1. Antony Lafrery, Etienne Duperac, Bird’s-eye view of Naples. Engraving 1566. With indications of the five castles in Naples: 1. Castel Nuovo; 2. Castel Capuano; 3. Castello del Carmine;

4. Castel Sant’Elmo; 5. Castel dell’Ovo (elaboration: author)

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buildings by analysing their appearance and theirfunction during the Aragonese period.

The original appearances of Castel Nuovo andCastel Capuano have been much altered: todayboth buildings are the result of many transforma-tions and restorations carried out in the precedingfive centuries. Castel Capuano was transformedin 1536 into the Law Courts and its present ap-pearance is due to the nineteenth-century res tor -ation.1 Castel Nuovo is today the result of a pro-tracted and controversial rebuilding carried out at

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were the two principal centres of Neapolitan pol -itical and ceremonial life (fig. 1 – 3). It was only atthe end of the fifteenth century that the Arago -nese royals began to build new residences withinthe capital, such as the villas of Poggioreale and ofthe Duchesca, and a new royal palace to be con-structed near Castel Nuovo which was never be-gun.

This essay deals with the renewal of CastelNuovo and the Castel Capuano, in an attempt tothrow fresh light on the architecture of these two

1 Ferdinando Nunziante, Castel Capuano sede dei Tribu-nali, in Napoli Nobilissima 2, 1893 113 – 118; FrancoStrazzullo, Edilizia e urbanistica a Napoli dal 500 al700, Naples 1995, 14; Luciana Di Lernia, Vittorio Bar-rella, Castel Capuano: memoria storica di un monumen-to da fortilizio a tribunale, Naples 1993, 97 – 122.

2 With the beginnning of restoration work on the CastelNuovo in 1926 an intense debate arose over whether Al-

fonso I, when he rebuilt Castel Nuovo, had reused thestructures of the old Angevin castle or had reconstruc-ted it completely a fundamentis. The two protagonistsin the debate were Riccardo Filangieri, director of theArchivio di Stato and director of the restorations of thecastle, and the engineer Achille Stella, president of the»Associazione per la tutela dei monumenti e del paesag-gio«, who expressed their different views in several pub -

2. Naples, Bird-eye view of Castel Nuovo from Castel Sant’Elmo

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ters, diaries, chronicles, poems, and city guides,which shed new light on these two castles andtheir dual role in Neapolitan urban, political andsocial life in the fifteenth century.

Located at opposite sides of the ancient city, Cas-tel Nuovo and Castel Capuano defended Na plesfrom the sea and from the hinterland. Both hadbeen built several centuries before the arrival of theAragonese by the city’s previous ruling dynasties,and during the second half of the fifteenth centurywere transformed by Alfonso I and his successorsinto elegant royal palaces (fig. 1, nn. 1 – 2).

When Alfonso I of Aragon arrived in 1442,Naples offered a choice between five differentcastles. Apart from Castel Nuovo and Castel Ca-puano, the city was defended by Castel del Car -mine, Castel Sant’Elmo and Castel dell’Ovo. IfCastel del Carmine (1382) was too strongly link -


the beginning of the twentieth century, which at-tempted to restore the castle to its appearanceduring the Aragonese Reign on the basis of sur-viving fifteenth-century documents and images,such as the Tavola Strozzi, and by freeing whatmonumental evidence remained from all the sub-sequent additions and accretions (fig. 4).2

Apart from the numerous sources which havealready been published by Neapolitan scholarssuch as Riccardo Filangieri, Camillo Minieri Ric-cio, and Nicola Barone, there is further docu -mentary evidence relating to Castel Nuovo andCastel Capuano which has hitherto remainedoverlooked by the studies on these two buildings.In addition to official documents and building ac-counts, this essay will consider several differenttypes of sources produced in various contexts andwith differing purposes, such as ambassadors’ let-

lished articles. Riccardo Filangieri, Castelnuovo e i suoirestauri. Conferenza tenuta presso la compagnia degl’Il-lustri il 19 dicembre 1926, in Bollettino del Comune diNapoli 5, 1927; Id., La galleria di Castelnuovo, in Bollet-tino del Comune di Napoli 6, 1928; Id., Critiche ameneall’opera di rifacimento di Castelnuovo. Questioni stori-che e criteri di restauro, Naples 1931. Achille Stella, Ilcastello angioino di Napoli (Castelnuovo). Capisaldi di

un razionale restauro, Naples 1926; Id., Cas telnuovo diNapoli alla luce dei documenti e della storia, Naples1928; Id., Il restauro di Castelnuovo. Premesse e conse-guenze di un irrazionale rifacimento, Naples 1931. Onthe debate see Rosanna Di Battista, Il cantiere di Castel-nuovo a Napoli fra il 1443 ed il 1473. Tesi di Dottorato,Università IUAV di Venezia, 1998, 10 – 12.

3. Naples, View of Castel Capuano

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(1329) was most probably too distant from thecentre of the city to be appropriate as a maindwelling (fig. 1, nn. 3 – 4).4 Castel dell’Ovo (1140)


ed to its nature of fortress and outpost locatednear the coast, at the meeting point between theeastern and southern walls,3 Castel Sant’Elmo

3 Ludovico De la Ville sur Yllon, Il Castello del Carmine,in Napoli Nobilissima 2, 1893, 186 – 189; Arturo dellaRocca, Le mura di Napoli, porta Capuana e la loro vi-cenda storica, Naples 1978; Lucio Santoro, Castelli an-gioini e aragonesi nel Regno di Napoli, Naples 1982, 72;179; Maria Raffaela Pessolano, Castelli napoletani in etàvicereale, in Angela Marino (ed.), Fortezze d’Europa,Rome 2003, 151 – 160; Lanfranco Longobardi, Una for -ti ficación anomala: el Castillo del Carmen, in Castillosde España 145, 2007, 37 – 46; Claudia Rusciano, Il cas -tello dimenticato: nascita, declino e scomparsa del Fortedel Carmine, in Giosi Amirante, Maria Raffaela Pesso -lano (eds.), Territorio, fortificazioni, città. Difese delRegno di Napoli e della sua capitale borbonica, Naples2008, 91 – 104.

4 Arnaldo Venditti, Architettura bizantina nell’Italia me-ridionale. Campania, Calabria, Lucania, 2 vols., Naples1967, II, 723; Camillo Gubitosi, Analisi e lettura archi-

tettonica di Castel Sant’Elmo in Napoli, in Atti dellaAccademia Pontaniana 22, 1973, 39 – 70; Santoro (as innote 3), 66; 95.

5 Riccardo Filangieri, Castel dell’Ovo nelle sue più anti-che rappresentazioni (1352 – 1465), Naples 1934; JoleMazzoleni, Lavori a Castel dell’Ovo nell’epoca arago-nese, in Archivio storico per le province napoletane 85 –86, 1968 – 1969, 377 – 382; Venditti (as in note 4), 723;Camillo Gubitosi, Castel dell’Ovo nella storia: il rilievo,il restauro, la ristrutturazione, in Atti della AccademiaPontaniana, new series, 17, 1967 – 1968, 83 – 95; Santoro(as in note 3), 64; 89; 135.

6 Giuliana Vitale, Ritualità monarchica, cerimonie e pra -tiche devozionali nella Napoli aragonese, Salerno 2006,49 – 51; 84 – 92.

7 Riccardo Filangeri, Castel Nuovo. Reggia angioina edaragonese di Napoli, Naples 1934, 5 – 51.

8 Vitale (as in note 6), 51 – 58.

4. Francesco Rosselli (attr.), Detail of the Tavola Strozzi showing Castel Nuovo. Tempera on wooden panel c. 1472. 82 × 245 cm. Naples, Museo Nazionale di San Martino (inv. 1 1982)

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larly evident during the moments of successionand during the ritual of the transfer of power toand investiture of the new king.8

Castel Capuano instead functioned as an alter-native residence for the King; from the time of Al-fonso I of Aragon on it became the permanentresidence of the Duke of Calabria. Castel Capu -ano had been built during the twelfth century atthe far end of the platea mediana of the ancientgrid adjoining the city walls, and had been con-ceived as a defensive outpost in a strategic posi-tion in respect to the main lines of communica-tion to Naples from the hinterland.9 The castle of-ficially became a royal residence when Charles Iof Anjou went to live there while he was waitingfor the completion of Castel Nuovo.10 During thefirst years of the fifteenth century Castel Capu -ano was temporarily used as the main royal resi-dence by King Ladislao d’Angiò Durazzo and byhis sister Giovanna, future Giovanna II.11 Subse-quently, having conquered Naples in 1442, Alfon-so I of Aragon made Castel Capuano his principalresidence and the centre of his first triumphal cel-ebrations, while the building works to recon-struct Castel Nuovo, almost completely des troy -ed during the war against René d’Anjou, theFrench pretender to the throne, were underway.12

Alfonso’s I main aim in reconstructing CastelNuovo was to re-establish its character as a defen-sive fortress in order to resist attacks from the sea (fig. 5). Alfonso tried to make his castle up-


was occasionally used also as a residence, butfrom the time of Charles I of Anjou on it had beenmainly dedicated to housing the royal treasury(fig. 1, n. 5).5 Located outside the city walls, Cas-tel dell’Ovo could also function as neutral territo-ry to be used during delicate moments for royalpower such as the succession from one king to another: in 1458 the dying Alfonso I of Aragonwas transferred to Castel dell’Ovo in order to fa-cilitate Ferrante’s investiture in Castel Nuovo; itwas in Castel dell’Ovo and not in Castel Nuovothat Alfonso II waited to depart for Messina in1494 after having renounced the throne in favourof his son.6

From the thirteenth century Castel Nuovo andCastel Capuano were both used as the main resi-dences for the King and the heir to the throne, theDuke of Calabria, and were therefore the twopoles of the political, ceremonial and cultural lifeof the court, where ambassadors were receivedand official celebrations were held; the daily lifeof the royal family and of the court was character-ized by a coming and going from one castle to theother.

After having conquered Naples in 1266, CharlesI of Anjou built Castel Nuovo following the planof the French architect, Pierre de Chaule, in thenew and expanding area to the west of the city.7

On completion, Castle Nuovo became the mainresidence of the King and acquired over time amarked symbolic importance, which was particu-

9 For Castel Capuano during the medieval period seeGiuseppe De Blasiis, Le case dei principi angioini nel-la piazza di Castel Nuovo, in Archivio storico per lepro vince napoletane 2, 1886, 455; 12, 1887, 289 – 435.Carlo De Frede, Da Carlo I d’Angiò a Giovanna I(1263 – 1382), in Ernesto Pontieri (ed.), Storia di Na -poli, 10 vols., Naples 1967 – 1971, III (1969), 42; Arnal-do Venditti, Urbanistica e architettura angioina, in op. cit., III, 6, 846; Di Lernia and Barrella (as in note1), 13 – 32. On the castle in general see Giovanni Gar-rucci, Il Castel Capuano e le sue storiche vicende, Na-ples 1871; Nunziante (as in note 1); Riccardo Filangie-ri, Il Castello di Capuana: fortezza e reggia, Naples(not dated [1950s]); Felice De Filippis, Castelcapuano,Naples 1956; Santoro (as in note 3), 64, 66, 9, 135.

10 Between 1266 and 1282, Charles I also used CastelDell’Ovo sporadically as an alternative residence. DiLernia/Barrella (as in note 1), 21 – 24.

11 Di Lernia/Barrella (as in note 1), 25 – 28.12 Alfonso lived in Castel Capuano from 1442 until 1453.

Di Lernia/Barrella (as in note 1), 31 – 44. On CastelCapuano as the centre of the first triumphal celebra -tions see George L. Hersey, The Aragonese Arch inNaples, New Haven/London 1973, 24 – 27. On the re-construction of Castel Nuovo during the Aragoneseperiod see Riccardo Filangieri, L’Architettura dellareggia aragonese di Napoli, in L’Arte 3, 1928, 32 – 35;Id., Rassegna critica delle fonti per la storia di CastelNuovo, Naples 1938; Id., Rassegna critica delle fontiper la storia di Castel Nuovo, Naples 1939; Id. (as innote 2), 51 – 107; Stella (as in note 2); Camillo MinieriRiccio, Gli artisti ed artefici che lavorarono in CastelNuovo al tempo di Alfonso I e Ferrante I di Aragona,Naples 1876. The most recent work on the castle is DiBattista (as in note 2).

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13 Filangieri (as in note 7), 60 – 61. 14 Dispacci Sforzeschi da Napoli. 1444 – 2 luglio 1458,

Francesco Senatore (ed.), vol. I, Salerno 1997, n. 120,316 – 319, here 317: »Da Pedemonte scrissemo ala ex-cellentia vostra e avisemola de la nostra gionta ala ma-està del signore re e dela bona coglienza facta a nuy daquella e così dele altre cose, come quella haverà visto;dappoy ne venimo qui, dove la maestà del re scrisseche fussem bene visti e recevuti et mostratone tutte sue

forteze e monutione. E già fina hora havemo vistoCas telnovo quale, come debbe havere inteso la signo-ria vostra, tutte ha ratificato con bellissime muray etorre et barbacani, che è una cosa meravigliosa delagrosseza e ornamento dele mure in forteza et di belladimostratione di fora. Ma dentro comprendemo nonpossa fare quelle cose conseguente alle mure di fora perel pocho spacio, come vostra signoria è informata, e inquesto credemo vostra signoria vincerà, ma de le mura

5. Plan of Castel Nuovo: a. Torre del Beverello; b. Torre San Giorgio; c. Torre di Mezzo; d. Torre di Guardia; e. Torre dell’Oro; f. moat; g. rivellini; h. entrance arch; i. vestibule; l. courtyard; m. staircase; n. door to theGran Sala; o. Gran Sala; p. »Porta del Trionfo«; q. royal apartments; r. Palatine chapel. From Achille Stella,

Castelnuovo di Napoli alla luce dei documenti e della storia, Naples 1928 (elaboration: author)

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to the residence of a king and expressive of thepower of the new dynasty.

The most striking feature in the search to be-stow magnificence on the building is the marblearch built at the entrance of the castle in the newall’antica style, one of the most important andcontroversial works of fifteenth century Italy (fig. 7).17 The arch was the final element in the re-


to-date with the rapid progress in the develop-ment of fire arms and in the offensive potential ofmortars which were revolutionizing the tech-niques of defence, by considerably increasing thethickness of the walls and introducing new fea-tures (fig. 6).13 In a letter to the Duke of MilanFrancesco Sforza dated 6 December 1455, the Mi-lanese ambassa dors Troilo di Muro and OrfeoCenni noted how Castel Nuovo included a newand important element of military architecture,the so-called rivellini, the open air crenellatedbattlements that ran along the sloping base of thecastle and which, in their opinion, would havebeen able to accommodate »a thousand horsesand two thousand foot soldiers« (fig. 5, g);14 theyalso described the external moat which could beflooded with water (fig. 5, f). The words of theMilanese ambassadors show how, apart fromtheir defensive role, the thick ness of the walls andthe use of towers and buttressess were also im-portant elements of royal magnificence, com-menting that »all such things were beautiful andmarvellous to behold«.15 In addition to being sur-rounded by a double moat, the castle was furtherprotected by the so-called »cittadella«, a trapezo -idal fortress surrounded by five bastions, wherethe battles between the Arago ne se and the An -gevins and then between the French and the Span-ish were fought in subsequent years.16

Once he had ensured the defences against at-tack from the sea, Alfonso I of Aragon tried togive his fortress a magnificent appearance suitable

perderà; pure molto se sforza de cunciarlo più ornata-mente che ’l po’. E così havemo veduto le sue munitio-ne de bombarde, quale sonno molto belle, grosse e inquantità e tutte sonno facte alla guisa de la cimbalinade Genua. Le mura et cinque torre che sonno nel pre-fato castello sonno generalmente grosse palme XXIIde cava, le torre sonno di tondo palme CCXX, di al -tez za sonno CCLXXX e tutte de petra viva, lavorate ascarpello, tutte abeccadelate, e di fora à principiato euna bona parte facto uno revelino dove stariano intormille cavalli e II m[ila] fanti a pede in batalia, dove saràuno fosso scarpato di fora, in lo quale poterà intrarel’aqua del mare. Quale cose sono belle e meravegliolsea vedere.« The letter is discussed in a forthcoming es-say by the author of the present article: Alfonso I ofNaples and the Art of Building: Castel Nuovo in theEuropean Context, in Silvia Beltramo, Flavia Cantato-

re, Marco Folin (eds.), Royal Palaces in Early Renais-sance Italy: a Comparative Approach (forthcoming2013, Brill Publishing).

15 Ibid.16 Filangieri 1938 (as in note 12), 23 – 24; Filangieri (as in

note 7), 66.17 Even though the idea of erecting a triumphal arch at

the entrance to Castel Nuovo certainly existed earlier,the actual work on it began around 1452 – 1453. Onthe arch see Émile Bertaux, L’arco e la porta trionfaled’Alfonso e Ferdinando d’Aragona a Castel Nuovo, inArchivio storico per le province napoletane 25, 1900, 1 – 36; Cornelius von Fabriczy, Der Triumphbogen Al-fonsos I am Castelnuovo zu Neapel, in Jahrbuch derPreußischen Kunstsammlungen 20, 1899, 1 – 30; 125 –158; Filangeri (as in note 7), 107 – 191; Hersey (as innote 12), 21 – 56; Hanno Walter Kruft, Magne Mal-

6. Naples, Castel Nuovo, View of the Torre di Guardia and of the Torre dell’Oro

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construction of the Castel Nuovo under Alfon -so I, but it was conceived as an introduction to thecastle and to the ceremonial route which an-nounced to those entering the magnificence andsplendour they would encounter as they walkedbetween the high austere towers, in the courtyard,in the gardens and in the interior spaces.18

The entrance to the castle through the all’anti-ca arch, followed by the vestibule with its monu-mental Catalan ribbed vault (fig. 8), gave an im-mediate foretaste of the general character of thewhole building, and in particular of the courtyardwhich drew together the main elements of Cata-lan courtyards, such as the external staircase andthe stone intaglios of the pedra piquers,19 togetherwith a careful arrangement of the antiquitieswhich Alfonso had begun to acquire in 1447 (fig. 9).20 The courtyard, which was full of plants,was overlooked by loggias, galleries, windowsand balconies, and by the facades of the Gran Sala, the Palatine Chapel and several royal apart-ments.21


manger, Der Triumphbogen Alfonsos in Neapel. DasMonument und seine politische Bedeutung, in Acta adarcheologiam et artium historiam pertinentiam 6,1975, 213 – 305. More recent contributions are Di Bat-tista (as in note 2), 53 – 100; Ead., La porta e l’arco diCastelnuovo a Napoli, in Annali di architettura 10 –11, 1998 – 1999, 7 – 21; Andreas Beyer, Parthenope.Neapel und der Süden der Renaissance, Munich/Berlin2000, 13 – 58; Christoph Luitpold Frommel, Alberti ela porta trionfale di Castel Nuovo, in Annali di archi-tettura 20, 2008, 13 – 36. On the contribution of thesculptors see Francesco Caglioti, Una conferma perAndrea dell’Aquila scultore: la »Madonna« di casaCaffarelli, in Prospettiva 69, 1993, 2 – 27; Id., Sull’esor-dio brunelleschiano di Domenico Gagini, in Omaggioa Fiorella Sricchia Santoro, in Prospettiva 91 – 92, 1998[1999], 70 – 90; Id., Su Isaia da Pisa: due »Angeli reggi-candelabro« in Santa Sabina all’Aventino e l’altare eu-caristico del Cardinal d’Estouteville per Santa MariaMaggiore, in Prospettiva 89 – 90, 1998, 125 – 160. Rena-ta Novak, La prima opera documentata di Pietro daMilano, in Nuovi studi 5, 2000 [2001], 5 – 11.

18 For the gardens see Filangieri (as in note 7), 251; Id.1938 (as in note 12), 12; 24 – 25. On the interior spacessee Filangieri (as in note 7), 231 – 250; Id. 1938 (as innote 12), 33 – 65.

19 The vestibule was executed in 1446 by the two Catalanpedra-piquers Bartolomeu Prats and Bartolomeu Vil-lasclar. Filangieri 1938 (as in note 12), 32; Di Battista(as in note 17), 8. The court was refashioned only after

December 1452, once the defensive works had beencompleted. Filangieri (as in note 7), 79; Id. 1938 (as innote 12), 32.

20 The two statues that Alfonso sent from Rome to Cas -tel Nuovo, on the 28 October 1447, were most prob -ably ancient. See Camillo Minieri Riccio, Alcuni fattidi Alfonso I di Aragona: dal 15 aprile 1437 al 31 diMaggio 1458, in Archivio storico per le province napo-letane 6, 1881, 254 [Ottobre 28 1447: »E nello stessogiorno con una saettia fa trasportare da Roma alla cittàdi Napoli due statue di marmo con ordine di conse -gnarle ad Arnaldo Sanz castellano di Castenuovo«]). Ifthe books and Flemish art in the Aragonese collectionhave been studied, no attempt has hitherto been madeto reconstruct the antiquities which were displayed inCastel Nuovo. For some of the antiquities in thecourt yard see below. For the Aragonese library andthe dynasty’s patronage of illuminated manuscriptpro duction see Tammaro De Marinis, La Bibliotecanapoletana dei Re d’Aragona, 5 vols., 2 suppl., Milan1952 – 69. For Alfonso’s collection of Flemish art seeClaire Challéat, Le cose di Fiandra che allora sole era-no in prezzo: modèle artistque et modèle politique à la cour d’Alphonse d’Aragon à Naples, in Studiolo 6,2008, 169 – 190. See also Margaret Ann Skoglund, Insearch of the art commissioned and collected by Alfon-so I of Naples, notably painting, Ph.D. Thesis Univer-sity of Missouri (1989), Ann Arbor, Mich. 1996.

21 Philippe de Vigneulles was in Naples around 1486 andworked as a valet for Alfonso duke of Calabria. In de-

7. Naples, Castel Nuovo, View of the entrance arch


8. Naples, Castel Nuovo, View of the Catalan vault in the vestibule

9. Naples, Castel Nuovo, View of the courtyard

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represent respectively the Jewish, Christian andIslamic religions. Ferrante is described as wearinground his neck a diamond with fifty four facets, asround and as large as a Neapolitan »tornese« or a Florentine »quattrino«. He drops the diamondin the grass and orders his three daughters to findthe jewel, promising to give it to the one who suc-ceeds. Although the diamond is first spotted byEleonora, it is actually seized by Beatrice who, inher role as a symbol of the Christian religion, isconsidered to be the winner of the search. The taleends with the diamond being awarded to Beatricein the Gran Sala of Castel Nuovo.25 It is at thispoint that Pier Andrea da Verrazzano’s descrip-tion of Castel Nuovo begins.

The Gran Sala excited in him such wonder thathe immediately exclaims that it »is so admirable awork of architecture that I don’t think a buildingcan be found in the world today to compare to it«(fig. 10).26 Built between 1452 and 1457 by theMajorcan architect Guillerm Sagrera on the site of the previous Angevin Sala, the Gran Sala, withits magnificent vault, recalled the throne rooms of Arab palaces in Sicily and Spain, as well as thethermal baths of the Campi Phlegrei.27 The hu-manist author gives us the measurements of theroom in Florentine braccia and describes in detailits complex geometrical and architectural con-struction formed of »eight faces with edges ribs ofworked stone, squared and triangulated, with ar-chitraves and cornices around, which move abovea corridor that turns around the said eight facesaround the room, and diminish in such a way that


The Milanese ambassadors thought that, oncompletion, the castle’s interior would not be ableto match the expectations created by its magnifi-cent external appearance because of the narrow-ness of the available space, and almost pitied Al-fonso for his efforts to make the best of the re-stricted area he had at his disposal.22 Alfonso in-stead succeeded in his plan to create a magnificentcourtyard and sumptuous interiors which wonvisitors’ admiration just as the external towersand the marble arch at the entrance did.

The sense of amazement which a visitor en-joyed on entering Castel Nuovo is well describedby a literary source which has hitherto been over-looked by architectural historians and other scho -lars who have written on the building. In a pam-phlet dedicated to Beatrice of Aragon, dated be-tween 1474 and 1475, the Florentine humanistPier Andrea da Verrazzano describes the routewhich led from the entrance to the Gran Sala,providing us with much new information on theCastle not many years after the Aragonese re-building, including numerous details hitherto un-known.23 Verrazzano could see the Castel Nuovoas renewed by Alfonso, but with the changeswhich had been added by his successor Ferrante I.

The description of Castel Nuovo is part of atale included in the third of the seven songs whichmake up the pamphlet.24 The tale begins in themarshes near Naples: passing through Porta delMercato, Ferrante arrives in the form of Jupiteron a triumphal chariot along with his threedaught ers, Eleonora, Beatrice and Selvaggia, who

scribing Castel Nuovo he writes: »Au dedant est lacour, grande et plantureuse et sont arvoult entour oùsont plusieurs gens de mestier, qui là se tiennent, quibesongnent pour la court«. Gedenkbuch des MetzerBürgers Philippe von Vigneulles aus den Jahren 1471bis 1522, Henri Victor Michelant (ed.), Stuttgart 1852,23. On the description see Riccardo Filangieri, Scenedi vita in Castelnuovo, Naples 1957, 113. The court -yard was not normally illuminated at night, but onlyon certain occasions. For example in September 1465fourteen large wrought iron candelabra holding tor-ches adorned the courtyard. Filangieri 1938 (as in note12), 33.

22 See note 14.23 Tammaro De Marinis, Carlo Dionisotti, Un opuscolo

di Pier Andrea da Verrazano per Beatrice d’Aragona,

in Italia Medioevale e Umanistica 10, 1967, 321 – 343.The short manuscript book is preserved in the VaticanLibrary (cod. Barber. Lat. 3972) and lacks the first page, which was probably illuminated; it was copiedand signed on page 128v by Alessandro da Verrazzano(»Alexander de Verrazano scripsit«), who belonged toa different branch of the author’s family. Another copyof the same short work is the cod. Riccardiano 2891 inFlorence copied by Antonio Sinibaldi, which still car-ries the original title and dedication of the work: Spec -c<h>ietto di Pier Andrea da Verrazzano circa la veritàdella fede alla S(erenissima) R(egina) d’Ungheria ma-donna Beatrice d’Aragona l’anno del suo felice spon -salitio. The text is divided in two parts: the first (ff. 2 –16v of the Barberini codex) consists of seven ›stanze‹in ninety two verses; the second (17 – 128v) is a long

451

the ring on which the lantern is placed, closes andclamps and terminates all the stones of the abovementioned ribs, architraves, cornices and com-partments« (fig. 11).28


they close at the end in a vault of the above men-tioned compartments, at the top of which in thecentre there is a stone lantern of a size fitting forsuch a building, so that the last stone, that closes

comment in prose on the preceding ›stanze‹; two son-nets conclude the work. It is known that Pier Andreada Verrazzano had connections with Naples, where itis known he stayed in 1484. See De Marinis (as in note20), I, 263. De Marinis and Dionisotti date the opus -cule after 1474 as Beatrice d’Aragona appears in thetext as Queen of Hungary; it may have been writtenbetween the announcement of the wedding of Beatriceand Matthias Corvinus in 1474 and its celebration in1475.

24 See Appendix 1.25 De Marinis/Dionisotti (as in note 23), 329 – 331.26 For Summonte’s comment on the Gran Sala in his 1524

letter to Michiel see Fausto Nicolini, L’arte napoletanadel Rinascimento e la lettera di Pietro Summonte aMarcantonio Michiel, Naples 1923, 141 – 175, here 171.

On the Gran Sala see also Roberto Pane, Il Rinasci-mento nell’Italia meridionale, 2 vols., Milan 1975 –1977, I, 63 – 95; Amadeo Serra Desfilis, »E’ cosa cata -lana«. La Gran Sala de Castelnuovo en el contexto me-diterráneo, in Annali di architettura 12, 2000, 7 – 16.For the imperial character of the Gran Sala see JoannaWoods-Marsden, Art and political identity in fif-teenth-century Naples. Pisanello, Cristoforo di Gere-mia, and King Alfonso’s imperial fantasies, in CharlesM. Rosenberg (ed.), Art and politics in late medievaland early Renaissance Italy, 1250 – 1500, Notre-Dame1990, 21 – 22; Serra Desfilis (op. cit.), 12 – 13.

27 Serra Desfilis (as in note 26).28 Appendix 1. Andrea da Verrazzano describes the Gran

Sala as square, with a width and height measuring 40Florentine braccia, approximately 21.5 m (1 Floren -

10. Naples, Castel Nuovo, View of the Gran Sala

452

Before going on to describe the interior deco -ration and the throne, Pier Andrea da Verrazzanogives a description of the exterior of the GranSala, demonstrating how, on entering the court-yard, the features that attracted the attention ofvisitors were the elaborate projecting triumphalbalcony and the open staircase (fig. 9). The bal-cony, on which the king emerged from the GranSala to observe his subjects, had been sculpted byCatalan artists at the time of Alfonso I; its de-struction by a lightning bolt on the 26 May 1511makes Verrazzano’s description even more valu-able.29 The humanist notes that the balcony »restson one stone in the form of a vase«, and after describing in detail its complex geometrical con-struction concludes by saying it is entirely deco-


tine braccio = 0.538 m. The actual measurement ofeach side of the Gran Sala is 26 m; the full height is 28m. The humanist also describes how up to three quar-ters of its height the Sala remains perfectly square,where-as in the last quarter it narrows and each face ofthe square is divided into two triangular surfaces,which makes a total of eight surfaces, their edgesmark ed in stone.

29 It is possible that the balcony was built together withthe rest of the Gran Sala in 1457. As part of the GranSala which was called the »Sala del Trionfo«the win-dow and balcony were also known as the »finestratrionfale«.

30 Appendix 1. For the niche with the statue of Justice seeFilangieri (as in note 7), 95. On the tabernacle in Ca-talan style see Filangieri (as in note 7), 80. It is inte-resting to note that a tabernacle with a statue of Justiceis mentioned in the »Memorial fet per la magestat delsenyor Rey an Antoni Sagrera d.a la obra del Castell-nou« (Archivo de la Corona de Aragón, Cancilleria,Reg. 2736, f. 11v). According to this document dated14 January 1451, Antoni Sagrera, son of the Guillermwho was the protomagister in the construction of Cas -tel Nuovo, was sent to Majorca to fetch stonesuppliesfor the building. Among the entries there is mention of a »peça que a servir per lo tabernacle de la figura

11. Naples, Castel Nuovo, Plan and section of the Gran Sala

12. Naples, Castel Nuovo, Detail of the »vase« of theTriumphal balcony

453

later Domenico Antonio Parrino’s identified withNero. In his guide, Parrino also recalls how nextto the door on top of the staircase there were twostatues, which had been removed, and that two


rated with putti, animals, birds and various typesof leaves and flowers »tutti ritratti al natural« (fig. 12); he also gives an accurate description ofhow the balcony was surmounted by a tabernaclewith a niche where the stone sculpture of »abeauti ful virgin of a natural human form, with agilded sword in her hand«, representing Justice,was displayed: such a statue had only recentlybeen placed there by king Ferrante I in 1472, acouple of years before Verrazzano’s arrival inNaples.30

To enter the Gran Sala foreign ambassadors andother diginitaries had to ascend the monumentalstone staircase »tutta d’un pezzo«, which hadbeen built at the same time as the Gran Sala (fig. 5,m; 9).31

The staircase, balcony and courtyard function -ed as a theatrical setting for celebrations and feastsattended by a great number of guests: for exam-ple, on the occasion of the wedding of Isabella ofAragon to Gian Galeazzo Sforza on 21 December1488 Joanpiero Leostello’s chronicle describeshow »so many people were present that the solid-ly fixed balustrade of the castle’s staircase col-lapsed, pulling down with it over a hundredmen«, causing injuries to arms, heads, legs andnoses.32 From later sources, such as Pompeo Sar-nelli’s seventeenth-century guide, we know thatthe staircase was decorated at the bottom with a marble statue of a soldier, which fifteen years

de la Justicia qui sia davant la gran volta de la entradedel ditt Castell, ha da aver de lonch VI palms et de ample V palms e mig e dealt III palms«. On the basis of this document, Di Battista (as in note 17, 8) arguesthat before the construction of the arch at the entranceto the castle, a tabernacle of Justice would have beenplaced in front of the large vault of the vestibule. Wecan there fore assume that the tabernacle in Majorcastone and the statue of Justice described by Verrazza-no are the same as those mentioned in the 1451 »Me-morial«; the tabernacle and statue might have beenmoved to a postion above the triumphal balcony of theGran Sala by King Ferrante in 1472, after he had built,between 1465 and 1471, the internal arch with the scene of the coronation in front of the vestibule vault.At present the tabernacle is located next to the externalstaircase; the niche on top of the balcony is still in place.

31 Appendix 1. The construction of the staircase was be-gun in July 1456 by Guadagno and Giovanni Buono-

core and by Costanzo di Vico. Filangieri (as in note21), 79 – 80; Id. 1938 (as in note 12), 41.

32 Joampiero Leostello da Volterra, Effemeridi delle cosefatte per il Duca di Calabria (1484 – 1491), in: GaetanoAngerio Guglielmo Filangieri, Documenti per la sto-ria, le arti e le industrie delle province napoletane, 5 vols., Naples 1883 – 1891, I, 185: »Die xxi. Decem-bris. Bona hora [Alphonsus dux Calabriae] surrexit etexpeditis quibusdam missam audivit et comedit quamprimum et equitavit in Castellum Novum: che quellojorno se feceno li sponsalitii del’Illustrissima Duchessade Milano et prese lo anello et se ne fece una grandefesta in lo dicto castello: ce intervennero tucti li Signo-ri lombardi et tucti li Signori de lo Reame et ce fu tan-to concurso de gente quello jorno che li parapecti de lescale grandi de dicto castello, che erano murate benforte, cascoro cum più de cento homini appresso. Nonne morio nullo dio gratia: ma chi se ruppe lo capo, chilo naso, chi le gambe et braccie; ita et taliter che se ri-corderanno de dicta festa«.

13. Naples, Castel Nuovo, Staircase and door leading to the Gran Sala

454

Mino da Fiesole, as much as to say he should beregarded as the thirteenth emperor following thesequence of twelve in the Suetonian series.36 Suchan iconography, of which there are only a veryfew examples throughout Italy, emphasized Al-fonso’s self-image as an ancient »divus«, and isechoed by two pairs of all’antica half-bust profileportraits of emperors or generals inserted in laurelwreaths above the pediments of the double-sidedmarble »triumphal door« that led from the GranSala to the royal apartments in the northern wing,executed before 1458 by the Lombard sculptorDomenico Gagini (fig. 5, p; 14 – 15).37

Even though details of the Aragonese collec-tion remain scarce, Sarnelli’s and Parrino’s guidesto Naples describe how the courtyard of CastelNuovo was one of the first among those which


marble bas-relief portraits of Trajan and Hadrianwere, instead, still in place.33 Even though we can-not be sure that the two removed statues men-tioned by Parrino dated from the Aragonese per -iod, the display of the bas-relief portraits of thetwo Spanish emperors seems to reflect an arrange-ment which would been carefully selected by Al-fonso I. As the court humanist Antonio Beccadel-li, known as Panormita, points out, Alfonso I ofAragon considered Trajan and Hadrian as his pre-decessors.34 Furthermore the use of bas-relief por-traits of the emperors perfectly matches Alfonso’staste: in 1455 he commissioned a set of twelveheads, presumably bas-relief profiles, of Romanemperors from the Florentine sculptor Desiderioda Settignano.35 During the same years Alfonsowas portrayed in a monumental marble bust by

33 During Sarnelli’s time the Gran Sala was used as an ar-moury. Sarnelli writes that »nel discendere dall’arme-ria si vede la statua di marmo di un valoroso soldato,che, solo, sostenne il castello contra cento, come vuoleil Celestino« (Pompeo Sarnelli, Guida de’ forestieri cu-riosi di vedere e d’intendere le cose più notabili dellaregal città di Napoli e del suo amenissimo distretto, Na-ples 1685, 37). Domenico Parrino (Napoli città nobi -lissima, antica e fedelissima, esposta agli occhi et allamen te de’ curiosi, 2 vols., Naples 1700, I, 64 – 65) writes: »a piè della scala vi è una statua di Nerone, chei semplici dicono d’un soldato che difese quella scala;vicino alla porta vi erano due statue, tolte via, e vi si ve-dono in marmo di basso rilievo l’imagini di Trajano edAdriano, imperadori spagnuoli«. Parrino also des -cribes a bronze statue of Nero in the niche on the por-tal of the Palatine Chapel: »vicino alla detta Armeria viè la chiesa di Santa Barbara e, sopra la facciata, in unanicchia, una statua di bronzo, stimata dello stessoNerone, con una sfera d’orologio con le figure de’ set-te pianeti«.

34 Antonio Beccadelli, De dictis et factis Alphonsi RegisAragonum et Neapolis libri quatuor Antonii Panormi-tae, Rostock 1589, lib. IV, Proemium, 92: »Sola Hispa-nia Romae atque Italiae imperatores ac reges dare soli-ta est. At quales imperatores aut quales reges? Traia-num, Adrianum, Theodosium, Archadium, Honori-um, Theodosium alterum. Postremo Alfonsum, virtu-tum omnium vivam imaginem, qui cum superioribushis nullo laudationis genere inferior extet, tum maximereligione, id est vera illa sapientia, qua potissimum abrutis animalibus distinguimur, longe superior est at-que celebrior«. On Alfonso’s Spanish identity and theretrieval of the laus Hispaniae, and in particular of Tra-jan, from Roman imperial rhetoric see Peter Stacey,Roman Monarchy and the Renaissance Prince, Cam-bridge 2007, 191 – 192; Id., »Hispania« and Royal

Humanism in Alfonsine Naples, in Mediterranean Re-flections: Studies in Honour of David Abulafia (= Me-diterranean Historical Review 26, 1), Abingdon 2011,51 – 65.

35 Francesco Caglioti, Fifteenth-century Reliefs of An-cient Emperors and Empresses in Florence: Produc-tion and Collecting, in Nicholas Penny, Eike D.Schmidt (eds.), Collecting Sculpture in Early ModernEurope. Proceedings of the symposium organized bythe Center of Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (Wa -shington, 7 – 8 February 2003) (= Studies in the Historyof Art 70), New Haven 2008, 67 – 109. Caglioti pointsout that in 1455 Desiderio’s set was still in process ofcompletion. Of the autograph marble sculptures byDesiderio only two could possibly be linked to the1455 series of teste: the Julius Caesar in the Louvre orthe unnamed youthful Roman emperor in the MuséeJacquemart-André in Paris. The two profiles howeverwere not part of the same series. Caglioti questions al-so if the set of twelve heads of emperors that was takento Ferrante I in 1472 by Desiderio’s pupil Gregorio diLorenzo are to be identified with the same set of headsbegun for Alfonso seventeen years earlier. Gregorio diLorenzo might have either completed or entirely re -worked the series after the long interruption on the setwhich occurred after the deaths of the King in 1458and of Desiderio in 1464. Caglioti (op. cit.), 70.

36 Alfonso’s bust could possibly have been displayed inthe same room with the twelve profiles of the emper-ors. See Caglioti (as in note 35), 69 – 70. The portraitwas executed between 1455 and 1456 and is identi -fiable with a monumental bust signed »OPVS MINI«that is now lost, but was still in Valencia during theeighteenth century, together with other Neapolitantreasures. As Caglioti has demonstrated, the identi -fication of Alfonso’s portrait with a well-known auto-graph relief of the king by Mino himself, now in the

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and antiquarian collections in Rome, as well as inNaples.39 The location of the statue within CastelNuovo during the Aragonese period suggests that the virgin was probably identified with themythic founder of Naples, the mermaid Parthe -nope, one of Alfonso’s favourite themes. It isknown that around 1446 Alfonso asked severalhumanists in the court to compose a distich to ac-company a marble statue of a sleeping nymphrepresenting Parthenope; according to LorenzoValla, he won the certamen since Panormita’s dis-tich made the sleeping nymph speak, an aspectwhich Alfonso considered to be »indecens«.How ever, it is not clear if Valla really won thecompetition or invented the story instead.40 It iscertain that Panormita’s distich was used for asimilar image which Alfonso received from Car-


were being created in the same period in some ofthe leading palaces throughout Italy to be deco-rated with carefully arranged ancient statues. Thisimage is further confirmed by Pier Andrea daVerrazzano’s description, which adds a hithertounknown element to our knowledge of the court-yard by recalling how above the door at the top ofthe stairs there »rests the marble figure of a four-teen-year old naked virgin asleep, of such naturalbeauty that, whoever sees her, passes inside full ofsilent admiration so as not to wake her« (fig. 5, n;13).38 This statue of the sleeping virgin in CastelNuovo can be seen as the prototype of the »sleep-ing Ariadne«, that is, those nude or half-dressedfigures in a reclining position which from themiddle of the fifteenth century onwards wouldbecome an important feature in literary gardens

Louvre, is less plausible. Francesco Caglioti, Mino daFiesole, Mino del Reame, Mino da Montemignaio: uncaso chiarito di sdoppiamento d’identità artistica, inBollettino d’arte, ser. 6, 67, 1991, 19 – 86; Joana Barre-to, Du portrait du roi à l’image de l’Etat: les Aragon deNaples dans l’Italie de la Renaissance. Thèse de Doc-torat de histoire de l’art, Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne,2010, I, 95 – 96, n. 302; Francesco Caglioti, Mino daFie sole […], Piero di Cosimo de’ Medici […], MuseoNazionale del Bargello, Florence […], in The Renais-sance Portrait from Donatello to Bellini, Keith Chris -tiansen and Sefan Weppelmann (eds.), exh. cat. NewYork, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Haven/London 2011, 166 – 168, n. 4

37 The door is dated before 1458. For the attribution toDomenico Gagini see Cornelius von Fabriczy, Do-menico Gaggini in Neapel, in Repertorium für Kunst-wissenschaft 28, 1905, 193 – 195; Fritz Burger, Frances-co Laurana: eine Studie zur italienischen Quattrocen-toskulptur, Strassburg 1907; Hanno Walter Kruft, Do-menico Gagini und seine Werkstatt, Munich 1972, 20 –21, cat. 42. The door is 4.70 m high and 1.67 m large.The lower frieze representing Alfonso’s triumphalprocession through the ancient centre of Naples wasseverely damaged during a fire in 1919. On the tri -umphal door see also Filangieri (as in note 2), 164 –170; Filangieri (as in note 7), 89; Kruft/Malmanger (asin note 17), 213 – 305; Beyer (as in note 17), 37; 159, n. 144; Antonio Pinelli, Fatti, parole, immagini. Reso-conti scritti e rappresentazioni visive del trionfo napo-letano di Alfonso d’Aragona, in Giancarlo Alisio, Ser-gio Bertelli, Antonio Pinelli, Arte e politica tra Napolie Firenze. Un cassone per il trionfo di Alfonso d’Arago-na, Modena 2006, 52 – 53. Caglioti (as in note 35), 97 –98, n. 30, suggests that, although it is not certain if, in1457, Desiderio’s teste were already in Alfonso’s pal -ace, we can assume that Gagini was already well in -

formed about the royal commission to his Tuscan col-league. For the profiles above the triumphal door andtheir relation with fifteenth-century profile portraitsof leaders see Francesco Caglioti, Andrea del Verroc -chio e i profili di condottieri antichi per Mattia Corvi-no, in Péter Farbaky, Louis A. Waldman (eds.), Italyand Hungary: Humanism and Art in the Early Renais-sance. Proceedings of the International Conference ofVilla I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Ital ianRenaissance Studies (Settignano, 6 – 8 June 2007), Mi-lan 2011, 532 – 535.

38 Appendix 1.39 For the type of the sleeping nymph, especially in

Rome see Elisabeth B. MacDougall, The SleeepingNymph: Origins of a Humanist Fountain Type, in TheArt Bulletin 57, 1975, 357 – 365; Phyllis Pray Bober,The Coryciana and the Nymph Corycia, in Journal ofthe Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 40, 1977, 223 –239; Kathleen W. Christian, Empire without End. An-tiquities Collections in Renaissance Rome, c. 1350 –1527, New Haven/London 2010, 134 – 159. For thecult of the nymphs and the reclining figure in Naplessee Beyer (as in note 17), 13 – 19; 124 – 126. Sleepingfig ures and nymphs were an important feature of thefifteenth-century collection of antiquities of DiomedeCarafa in Naples. See also Bianca De Divitiis, Architet-tura e committenza nella Napoli della Quattrocento,Venice 2007, 123.

40 The anecdote is first reported by Valla himself in Bar-tholomeum Facium ligurem invectivae seu recrimina-tiones, liber IV, in Laurentii Vallae opera, nunc primonon mediocribus vigiliis & iudicio quorundam erudi-tiss. virorum in unum volumen collecta …, Basileae1540, 597 – 599: »Sed ut in his rex non tulit aperte sen-tentiam, sic in aliis pro me pronuntiavit, cum pro alia,tum vero quia indecens sit loquentem facere dormien-tem. Est enim signum quoddam marmoreum, quod

456 Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 76. Band / 2013

14. Domenico Gaggini, Triumphal door in the Gran Sala of Castel Nuovo. Naples ante 1458


quidam Parthenopes virginis volebant esse iacentis habitu, dormientisque, cui distichon epigramma iussialiqui docti viri facere sumus, aliorum tacebo. Antoniihoc fuit: ›Parthenope, multos bello vexata annos.Nunc opera Alphonsi parta iam pace quiesco‹. Meumhoc: ›Parthenope virgo diuturno exercita arte, MartiusAlphonsus dat, requiesce tibi‹«. The certamen over theParthenope followed a previous one, also recalled byValla, where he competed with Panormita for the verses which had to accompany the painted image offour virtues in Castel Capuano, which was not won byeither of the two. Valla also writes that he had been en-gaged in another controversia relating to a marble sta-tue, although he does not give further details on theepisode; he adds that, unlike Panormita, his versescould be read »apud augustissima templa in marmoreincise«, that is the ones composed for the Salamanchiin Palermo, for the bishop of Gaeta Giovanni de Nor-mannis and for the Neapolitan Gran Siniscalco Ser -gianni Caracciolo. Francesco Colangelo (Vita di Anto-nio Beccadelli detto il Panormita, Naples 1820, 175 –180) recalls the episode of the distich composed for

Parthenope’s statue following Valla’s version: »Eraci inNapoli una statua giacente in atto di dormire, e volgar-mente si chiamava la statua di Partenope. Il Re Alfon-so ordinò a vari letterati di comporci un distico, tra’quali il Panormita compose il seguente«. In the editionof the Antidotum in Facium Mariangela Regogliosi(Laurentii Valle Antidotum in Facium, Mariangela Re-goliosi [ed.], Padova 1981, 312, n. 12) argues that theletter sent by Alfonso to Cardinal Trevisan in 1446 (seefootnote below) demonstrates that Valla lied in declar -ing that he had won the poetical competition. Hersey(as in note 12, 24 – 25) relies on Valla’s account andsug gests that Alfonso would have commissioned, orused, another statue to suit Panormita’s rejected dis -tich, adding this new image to the sculpture group de-signed for Castel Capuano which already included hisown equestrian portrait and the four virtues, object ofthe previous competition between the two humanists.Hersey also identifies the resting Parthenope with theseated figure placed between the four virtues in theBoymans drawing, which he considers to be the eleva-tion of a festival arch created for a specific occasion, or

15. Domenico Gaggini, Detail of the frieze of triumphal door on the side of the royal apartments. Naples ante 1458

458

where he could see it every day and where it couldbe admired at the same time by the court. Fur-thermore, the door at the top of the staircaseabove which the sleeping nymph was displayedwas just next to the inner double-sided »tri-umphal door« which led from the Gran Sala tothe royal apartments, which showed at the centreof its upper frieze a nymph at rest surrounded by an oval acanthus garland, flanked by pairs ofreclining nymphs and water divinities (fig. 15).43

The two doors would have thus echoed each other and formed a pair in the processional route:after entering the Gran Sala under the figure ofParthenope resting after the war, the court wouldhave awaited the entrance of the king through thedoor that showed the triumphal entrance of Al-fonso I, with the antiquities of Naples in thebackground (fig. 13, 14). In this way each portalin the Gran Sala would have served to reiterateonce more his triumphal procession throughNaples in the wake of the peace which was sym-bolised by the sleeping nymph, and so reinforcingthe precise political and artistic purpose of cele-brating Alfonso as a »divus […] triumphator etpacificus«, as in the image on his medals.44

Pier Andrea da Verrazzano goes on to describethe interior arrangement and decoration of theGran Sala, beginning from the catafalque, which


dinal Ludovico Trevisan in 1446: Alfonso himselfwrote on 22 March 1446 to Trevisan, thankinghim for the gift of a »primera ymagen« and askinghis opinion on the setting he should give the fig-ure, which he decided to identify as Naples whichafter many years of war was now happily at peace;he also copied Panormita’s distich in the letter:»Il la ego Parthenope bello vexata tot annos/Nunc opera Alphonsi parta iam pace quiesco«.41

At the time of the certamen Alfonso was stillliving in Castel Capuano, where he would resideuntil 1453, while the rebuilding of Castel Nuovowas still under way; several years would pass before the staircase and the Gran Sala were com-pleted. It is probable that the sleeping nymph seenby Pier Andrea da Verrazzano was the same statue involved in the 1446 certamen, originallydisplayed in Castel Capuano and subsequentlymoved, together with its accompanying epigraph-ic distich, to a new location above the entrancedoor of the Gran Sala of Castel Nuovo, once thishad been completed.42

The setting of the sleeping nymph described byPier Andrea da Verrazzano at the entrance of theGran Sala of Castel Nuovo seems to correspondperfectly to Alfonso’s wish – as expressed in re -lation to the »ymagen« mentioned in the 1446 let-ter – to display the image of Naples in a position

as a permanent scaenae frons for Castel Capuano. Ac-cording to Di Battista, and more convincingly, theBoymans drawing represents the permanent scaenaefrons of the entrance to Castel Nuovo before the mar-ble arch was begun. Di Battista (as in note 17), 10 – 13.

41 »Sennor, vuestra letra he recebido e todos los presen-tes, de los quales no solamente haueys contentado edado deleyte a los sensos corporales mas aun a los spi-rituales; de que veo no me poder ygualer si la virtud devuestra paciencia no suple. Certifico vos, Sennor, quecuando la primera ymagen e pinturas vinieron, yo eraydo a caça e no torne que ya era el sol a la posta, e nonauia comido: delibere antes satisfazer al deseo que alcuerpo e las vi sin otro interualo e vos fago cierto queson de tanta perfecion en special la ymagen que cadadia la miro no co menos deleyte que la primera vegada.E por que con el verdadero amigo todas cosas se devencomunicar, vos notifico mi pensiamento e invencionde la colocacion de aquella por sentir vuestro pareçerche yo fago aquella che represente la statua de la ciu-dad de Napols la qual cansada por mucho tiempo deguerra optenida paz se repose. Enbio vos aqui inter-

clusos los versos que lo fechos fazer. ›Illa ego Parthe-nope bello vexata tot annos/ Nunc opera Alphonsiparta iam pace quiesco‹. De todos los otros fechos porletra de secretario vos sciuo ofreciendome siempre avuestra onra e plazer. Scrita de mi mano en el CastilloNueuo a XXII de Março. – REX ALFONSUS. – AlSennor Cardinal de Aquileia.«. See Benedetto Croce,Una lettera inedita di Alfonso d’Aragona, in NapoliNobilissima 1, 1892, 127 – 128; Andrés Giménez Soler,Itinerario del rey don Alfonso de Aragón y de Nápoles,Saragossa 1908, 224 – 225; Beyer (as in note 17), 13 – 17.Hersey (as in note 12, 25) suggests that the Boymansdrawing (see note above) corresponds to the »pensa-miento y invencion« that Alfonso sent to cardinal Tre-visan, and that the statue sent from Rome might havebeen the work of Bonomo de Rione Pinee, a fellow-sculptor with Paolo Romano, who sculpted Trevisan’stomb. Zita Agota Pataki (»Nympha ad amoenum fon-tem dormiens«, CIL VI/5,3*e: Ekphrasis Nymphen-brunnen sowie zur Antikenrezeption und zur politi-schen Ikonographie am Hof des ungarischen KönigsMatthias Corvinus, Stuttgart 2005, 35 – 36) argues that

459

a series of famous princes and rulers: as well ascorresponding to a well established tradition inthe design of public buildings elsewhere in Italy,the display of a series of famous men had an im-portant precedent in Naples and in Castel Nuovoitself, where Robert of Anjou had commissionedone such cycle.48

If Verrazzano concentrates his attention on thecourt and on the Gran Sala, a different route wasfollowed in a later description by a Modenese am-bassador in a letter to the Marquis of MantuaFrancesco II Gonzaga. The ambassador visitedCastel Nuovo on 8 May 1494 in the company ofthe Pope’s legate and the Pope’s nephew GoffréBorgia, and what he and his fellows saw duringtheir visit were the works which had just beencarried out by the new King Alfonso II. In thisaccount, the little group left the royal apartmentsand walked through the Gran Sala to reach thePalatine Chapel. The King’s apartments were nextto the Gran Sala, in the north wing of the castle(fig. 5, q). These were accessible from the largeopen-air staircase in the courtyard and wereformed of an enfilade of rooms with windowsfacing the courtyard on one side and the external»cittadella« on the other; from these windows theking could enjoy a privileged view of his horsesand of the jousts, which usually took place in the


stood on the right of the entrance and occupied anentire side of the room, with seven steps to ascendit and entirely covered with fine tapestries; at thecentre of the room, next to the wall, was the roy-al throne (»scanno«), worked in gold and silk,rather higher than the other seats on the right andon the left; behind and on top was a very rich goldbrocade pallium, and various embroidered liveriesaround it (fig. 5, o).45

The Gran Sala was never decorated with fres-coes; its walls were adorned with magnificent ta-pestries, such as the ones representing the storiesof the »Pastorella«, with the episodes of the visitof the Queen of Sheba to Salomon, which theFlor entine humanist goes on to describe: »fourmain pieces of tapestries of alexandrine velvet [...]of marvellous beauty«.46 Together with these ta-pestries, which Alfonso had probably inheritedfrom Giovanna II of Anjou, Pier Andrea da Ver-razzano describes others which are not reportedin any other known source: »And in a similar order other tapestries, mostly worked in finestgold, served to cover the said first face and theother three around, where various narratives wereto be seen, principally of Alexander the Great, Al-cibiades, Samson and other famous princes«.47 Hetherefore informs us that the Gran Sala was dec -orated with a collection of tapestries representing

the sleeping nymph might have been displayed in theupper fornix of the arch at the entrance to the castle.

42 It was the custom in humanistic descriptions of paint -ed or sculpted figures to refer to the precise age of theimage. It seems improbable that the Florentine huma-nist deduced the specific information about the age ofthe virgin from an inscription: in this case the detailwould have been added to one of the two 1446 dis -tiches or would have been part of a totally new in-scription specifically carved for the new setting in Cas -tel Nuovo.

43 See note 39 above. 44 Stacey (as in note 34), 183 – 196; Caglioti (as in note

35), 69. See also Woods-Marsden (as in note 27). Thequotation comes from the recto of the first of Pisanel-lo’s three medals portraying Alfonso, dated 1449. Forthe medals see George Francis Hill, A corpus of ItalianMedals of the Renaissance before Cellini, 2 vols., Lon-don 1930, I, 12, n. 41, II, pl. 9, n. 41.

45 Appendix 1. 46 Appendix 1. In commenting on Summonte’s letter,

Fausto Nicolini says that the tapestries of the »Pasto-

rella« were six in number, and not four (Nicolini [as innote 26], 233 – 236). In 1499 the walls of the Gran Salawas plastered over and the tapestries soon entered theEste collection. See Gaetano Filangieri di Satriano,Nuovi documenti intorno la famiglia, le case e le vicen -de di Lucrezia d’Alagno, in Archivio storico per le pro-vince napoletane 9, 1886, 121 – 122. See Filangieri 1938(as in note 12), 43. For the Aragonese tapestries see Lina Montalto, La bottega dei drappi sotto il regno di Alfonso di Aragona, in Napoli Nobilissima, 2 ser., 2,1921, 143 – 148.

47 Appendix 1.48 Giuseppe De Blasiis, Immagini di uomini famosi in

una sala di Castelnuovo attribuite a Giotto, in NapoliNobilissima 9, 1900, 65 – 67; Christiane L. Joost-Gau-gier, Giotto’s Hero Cycle in Naples. A Prototype ofDonne Illustri and a Possible Literary Connection, inZeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 43, 1980, 311 – 318. Theattribution of the cycle to Giotto has been questionedby Francesco Aceto, Pittori e documenti della Napoliangioina: aggiunte ed espunzioni, in Prospettiva 67,1992, 53 – 65.

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tries; these were followed by five rooms: the firstwas hung with tawny yellow velvet (»lionnato«or ›like a lion‹), the second of a black silk called»zambeloto«, the third of green velvet; the fourthroom was completely decorated with curtains ofgold and silver that looked as though »beatenwith a hammer, like plates«. This sequence ofrooms terminated with a studiolo decorated in aMoorish style, with books in precious bindingsand a chessboard. The ambassador finally de-scribes a room adjoining the Gran Sala, full ofprecious tapestries representing a pastoral fable, aplace where the barons »cortigianescano«. Afterbriefly waiting for the King, the group passedfrom the latter room above a little chapel and en-tered the Gran Sala where, among the tapestrieswhich covered the walls from ceiling to floor, theModenese ambassador, like Verrazzano, notes thefour representing the story of the »Pastorella«,saying that the Marquis of Mantua must alreadyhave heard of them, since they were among the


moat below the castle just outside its walls.49 Dur-ing the period of Alfonso I and Ferrante I’s reigns,we have evidence for only three rooms of theapartment, with coffered ceilings decorated withthe Aragonese crests.50 The apartments are the focus of the 1494 Modenese description, whichgives us a vivid and unprecedented image of theirappearance under Alfonso II. During his verybrief reign, Alfonso II, anxious to present himselfin a magnificent setting, had refashioned theapartment which had been his grandfather’s andfather’s in only a month and a half in 1494: thespeed with which the work had been carried outand the resulting magnificence aroused the ad -miration of the Modenese ambassador.51 He de-scribes the route through seven rooms coveredwith velvet tapestries of different types andcolours, one after the other, all covered with theemblems of the third Aragonese King. The am-bassador begins from the two most private spacesused as bedrooms decorated with golden tapes-

49 For the King admiring his horses from the windows ofhis apartments see Vico Magistretti, Lutto e feste allaCorte del re di Napoli. Relazione diplomatica dell’am-basciatore milanese al duca di Bari (1494), in Archiviostorico lombardo 6, 1879, 706 – 709, doc. III; Vitale (asin note 6), 99.

50 The location of the royal apartment is demonstratedby a document published by Schulz (Heinrich Wil-helm Schulz, Denkmäler der Kunst des Mittelalters inUnteritalien, 4 vols., Dresden 1860, IV, doc. 449, 186 –188, here 186), where we find a reference to the »ca -mere delo S. Re presso de la gran sala«. The first roomof the apartment next to the Gran Sala was the »Saladel Miglio«, and overlooked the staircase with twowindows. Then followed the »Sala del Nodo« or »Saladell’Interlazzo« with a gilded ceiling, and then the »Sa-la dell’Ermellino« with a ceiling of 428 cofferings; thelatter room was accessible from the courtyard througha carachol staircase in Majorcan stone. Filangieri 1939(as in note 12), 37 – 40; Filangieri (as in note 7), 237 –29. See also Berteaux (as in note 17), 59, n. 2. For theother apartments in Castel Nuovo, such as those of theQueen mother and of Federico d’Aragona, see Filan-gieri (as in note 12), 1938, 34 – 36; 51 – 57; 62 – 65; Ric-cardo Filangieri, La casa di Federico d’Aragona in Cas -tel Nuovo, Naples 1926.

51 Vitale (as in note 6), 43. Archivio di Stato di Modena,Cancelleria Ducale, Documenti di Stati e Città, 85, Descrizione, cerimonie della coronazione del re in Na-poli. 1494, 8 maggio. Appendix 2.

52 In his account the ambassador refers to the subject re-

presented in the tapestries as the »istoria dela pecorel-la«, but he was clearly referring to the famous groupwhich included the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Sa-lomon. An antechamber »dove se reduceno li gentil-homini« waiting to be received by the king is men -tioned in a letter written by Battista Bendedei on the25 Novembr 1485. See Giuseppe Paladino, Per la sto-ria della Congiura dei Baroni. Documenti inediti dell’Archivio estense: 1485 – 1487, in Archivio storico perprovince napoletane 46, 238 docs. VIII – IX. A »came-ra« where Alfonso received the ambassadors is men-tioned in the account of the Milanese ambassador in1458: »Finita la mesa, la maiestà sua ne condusse in unasua camera molto adornata e poxese la maiestà sua a sedere sopra una catedra digna da re; e così da parte eraasetato el duca suo figlolo, e nuy fussemo asetati soprauna bancha per contra la maiestà sua«. Dispacci sfor-zeschi (as in note 14), II, n. 323.

53 Appendix 2. In rebuilding Castel Nuovo Alfonso Ioriginally reused the original Angevin Palatine chapel,but had to largely rebuild it after the 1456 earthquake.Filangieri 1939 (as in note 12), 46 – 49; Filangieri (as innote 7), 241. The rich decoration of the chapel beforethe earthquake is recalled in a 1454 letter of the Mila-nese ambassador: »El dì de Natale la sua maiestà ne fece invitare ala mesa et alo vespere e quello dì cantà lamesa el cardinale in la capella de lo re, la qualle haveatanti ornamenti de imagine de santi, de oro, de tapaza-rie e de paramenti asay e specialmente de una croce degrandissimo pretio che quella capella fu extimata degrandissimo valore«. Dispacci sforzeschi (as in note

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types of fruit trees and exotic birds in beautifulcages, among which there was also a green parrot»donated by the King of Spain, found in a newlydiscovered island as big as Italy«, presumably oneof the Islands of the Caribbean.54 Apart from abrief reference to the lavish collection of illumi-nated manuscripts of Royal Library located in aroom overlooking the sea, the only other part ofCastel Nuovo to which Sanudo pays some atten-tion is the collection of gems, cameos, medals,necklaces and collars preserved in the Torre del-l’Oro in a gilded cabinet consisting of 430 smallremovable drawers, from which they were ex-tracted and shown to visitors and ambassadors bydisplaying them on a table covered with black vel-vet sorrounded by three organs.55

Even though he tried to use his short reign torenovate Castel Nuovo, Alfonso II only managedto refashion a small part of the interior spaces andreinforce the castle’s outer defences.56 It was duringthe long period from 1465 until 1494, when Alfon-


most beautiful objects to come out of Flanders(fig. 5, o).52 The diplomatic group concluded their tour of the building in the Palatine Chapeladorned with fine tapestries representing sacredsubjects, among which there may also have beenRogier van der Weyden’s canvases depictingChrist’s Passion (fig. 5, r).53 Here the group lis-tened to vespers and celebrated the Feast of theAscension.

An erratic but very interesting account of Cas-tel Nuovo’s splendour can be found in MarinSanudo’s chronicle on Charles VIII’s descentthrough Italy between 1494 and 1495. Omittingany reference to the Gran Sala, to the royal apart-ments and to the Palatine Chapel, the Venetianhistorian surprisingly concentrates on furtherparts of Castel Nuovo, such as the hanging gar-dens adjoining the royal residence, which theKing could reach through a system of draw-bridges. Providing many details, apart from thefountains and pools, Sanudo describes all the

14), II, n. 74. Between 1452 and 1458 Alfonso acquiredseveral canvases and tapestries made in Flandersthrough the Catalan merchant Andreu Pou; some ofthem were acquired in Rome in September 1455through the librarian Janne Terres. Among the latterwere the canvases representing Christ’s Passion byRogier van der Weyden described by Bartolomeus Fa-cius: »Eiusdem sunt nobiles in linteis picturae apudAlfonsum Regem eadem mater Domini renuntiata Filii captiuitate consternata profluentibus lacrimis ser-vata dignitate consumatissimum opus. Item contume-liae atque supplica quae Christus Deus noster a Judae-is perpessus est, in quibus pro rerum uarietate sensu-um atque animorum uarietatem facile discernas«. SeeMichael Baxandall, Bartolomeus Facius on Painting: a Fifteenth-Century Manuscript of »De viris illustri-bus«, in Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Insti-tutes 27, 1964, 105 – 107; Hersey (as in note 12), 13.Such tapestries were also described by Pietro Sum-monte: »Et quoniam aliquantum defleximus ad parlardi cose di Fiandra, non lasserò far menzione delli trepanni di tela lavorati in quel paese per lo famoso maes -tro Rogiero, genero di quel altro gran maestro Ioan-nes, che prima fe’ l’arte di illuminar libri, sive, ut hodieloquimur, miniare. Ma lo Rogiero non si esercitò senon in figure grandi. In questi tre panni era tutta laPassione di Cristo Nostro Signore, di figure, come hodicto, grandi, dove, fra le altre parti admirande, eraquesta: che la figura di Iesu Cristo, in ogni atto e motodiverso che facesse, era quella medesima, senza variarin un minimo pelo. Cosa tanto artificiosa che dava

grand’admirazione ad qualunque la mirava. Era com-mune fama che per lo signor re Alfonso primo questitre panni fôro comprati ducati cinquemila in Fiandra.Adesso devono essere in potere della poveretta signoraregina Isabella, moglier del signor re Federico di felicememoria, in Ferrara«. Nicolini (as in note 26), 162 –163. See Ferdinando Bologna, Napoli e le rotte medi-terranee della pittura da Alfonso il Magnanimo a Fer-dinando il Cattolico, Naples 1977, 82. For Alfonso’scommercial affairs in Flanders and on the Catalanmerchant Andreu Pou see Constantin Marinesco, Lesaffaires commerciales en Flandre d’Alphonse V d’Ara-gon, in Revue historique 221, 1959, 33 – 48; Alan Ry -der, The Kingdom of Naples under Alfonso the Magna-nimous. The Making of a Modern State, Oxford 1976,70, 188, 297.

54 La spedizione di Carlo 8 in Italia, raccontata da MarinSanudo, e publicata per cura di Rinaldo Fulin (Archi-vio Veneto, 3), Venice 1873, 238 – 240. See Appendix 3.For the garden see also Filangieri (as in note 7), 251.

55 Appendix 3. On the 31 January 1455 the Bishop ofNo vara and the ambassador Alberico Maletta, to-gether with the Genoese ambassador and Cardinal Capranica were taken to see the royal jewels and tapes -tries. See Dispacci sforzeschi (as in note 14), n. 79, 204.

56 Nicolas Adams, L’architettura militare di Francesco di Giorgio, in Francesco Paolo Fiore, Manfredo Ta furi(eds.), Francesco di Giorgio architetto, Milan 1993, 129– 155.

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seen by duke Alfonso, the castle was includedwithin the city’s new perimeter.58 The defence ofthe eastern part of the city was assigned to theCastel del Carmine and to the new walls; CastelCapuano could therefore dispense with its orig -inal defensive character and, through radicalbuild ing works, carried out in 1488, Alfonso wasable to refashion his residence exclusively as aprincely palace (fig. 17, 18).59

The renewed Castel Capuano was conceived byAlfonso, then Duke of Calabria, as part of a mag-nificent urban design which he undertook once hehad re-established his power after the second re-volt of the Barons in 1487. Castel Capuano wasconsidered as the centre of a new network of res-idences, which included the Duchesca, built with-in the gardens of the castle, and the suburban vil-la of Poggioreale.60 All three works were designedand carried out, in 1488, by the Florentine archi-tect Giuliano da Maiano. Such urban projects alsoincluded the new Porta Capuana, again designedby Giuliano in the same period, the extension ofthe Bolla acqueduct, which reached the three resi -dences of the Duke, guaranteeing supplies for thebaths and water sports, and the church dedicatedto the martyrs of the 1481 battle of Otrantoagainst the Turks (fig. 18).61

Even though the lack of visual representationsof it is undoubtedly a drawback, nevertheless, byintegrating various types of documents, we canform an idea of how Castel Capuano was one ofthe most splendid princely residences of the endof the fifteenth century.

Combining the daily entries in Joanpiero Leo -stello’s diary of the Duke of Calabria with part ofa 1488 building account, and with the detailed


so as Duke of Calabria and heir to the throne livedin Castel Capuano, that he was able to carry out hisproject to increase the magnificence of his resi-dence, further enhancing the role played by thecastle in the political and cultural life of the city.

If Castel Nuovo and Castel Capuano had al-ways had a dual role in the political and ceremo-nial topography of Naples, their complementaryfunctions were emphasised even further by kingFerrante at Castel Nuovo and his heir Alfonso atCastel Capuano.

Until 1484 Castel Capuano was still a real fort -ress and had maintained its character as a defen-sive outpost, half within and half outside the citywalls, protected by the ancient Porta Capuana(fig. 16).57 With the enlargement of the easternwalls begun by king Ferrante in 1484 and over-

57 Di Lernia/Barrella (as in note 1), 33 – 36. 58 George L. Hersey, Alfonso II and the Artistic Renewal

of Naples. 1485 – 1495, New Haven 1969, 44 – 57;Clau dia Rusciano, Napoli, 1484 – 1501. La città e lemura aragonesi, Rome 2002, 53 – 61. Bianca De Divi -tiis, I resoconti di guerra come fonte per la storia dell’-architettura, in Giancarlo Abbamonte et al. (eds.), Labattaglia nel Rinascimento meridionale, Atti del con-vegno internazionale (Napoli-Teggiano 13 – 17 aprile2010), Rome 2011, 245 – 256.

59 For the 1487 – 1488 renovation work on Castel Capua-no see Bianca De Divitiis, New Evidence on the 1488

Works on Castel Capuano and on Giuliano da Maianoin Naples (forthcoming); see also Franco Strazzullo,Lavori eseguiti in Castel Capuano nell’anno 1488 perconto del Duca di Calabria, in Napoli Nobilissima, 3 ser., 14, 1975, 143 – 150; Francesco Quinterio, Giuli-ano da Maiano, »grandissimo domestico«, Rome 1996,425 – 427.

60 On the Duchesca and Poggioreale see F. Lenzo, Ag -giornamento, in Anthony Blunt, Architettura baroccae rococò a Napoli, Milan 2006, 274, 271.

61 On Porta Capuana see Quinterio (as in note 59), 361 –375. On the Bolla acqueduct see Antonella Riccio,

16. Francesco Rosselli (attr.), Detail of the TavolaStrozzi showing Castel Capuano. Tempera on wooden panel c. 1472, 82 × 245 cms. Naples,

Museo Nazionale di San Martino (inv. 1 1982)

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Sanudo describes a total of twenty-one spacesin following what was most probably the sameroute undertaken by the Venetian ambassadors invisiting Castel Capuano.63 He first describes a se-quence of five painted rooms, in each of whichthere was decoration or splendid pieces of furni-


description given by Marin Sanudo, we can forma picture of Castel Capuano no longer as a fort -ress but as a palace, a »palazzo« as Sanudo calls it,made up of lavishly decorated rooms, studioli,baths, gardens, terraces, loggias, fountains and an-tiquities.62

L’antico acquedotto della Bolla, in Francesco Starace(ed.), L’acqua e l’architettura: acquedotti e fontane nelregno di Napoli, Lecce 2002, 115 – 179. On the founda-tion of the new church of Santa Maria dei Martiri ded -icated to the Otranto Martyrs see Vitale (as in note 6),222 – 224. See also the forthcoming article by the pres -ent author: Bianca De Divitiis, Privatizzazione deglispazi sacri e appropriazione dei culti civici da parte dinobili famiglie napoletane nel Quattrocento, in MauroMussolin (ed.), Pale d’altare, arredi liturgici, dispositi-vi visivi e strategie iconografiche nella progettazionedello spazio architettonico di cappelle e oratori privati

tra XIV e XVI secolo. Proceedings of the Doctoral Se-minar for the Classe di Lettere of the Scuola NormaleSuperiore (Pisa, May 2011).

62 See Appendix 3. On the 1488 account see De Divitiis(as in note 59).

63 On Sanudo’s description of Naples see De Divitiis (asin note 58), 250. On Sanudo’s methods see RawdonLubbock Brown, Ragguagli sulla vita e le opere di Ma-rin Sanuto, Venice 1837, 585 – 598; Fulin, Avverimen-to, in La spedizione (as in note 54), 9 – 13; Robert Fin-lay, Politics and History in the Diaries of Marino Sanuto, in Renaissance Quarterly 33, 1980, 585 – 598;

18. Plan of the transformation eastern walls of Naples, c. 1484

17. A. Baratta, Detail of the bird’s-eye view of Naplesshowing the Eastern walls. Engraving 1629

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lain.64 After leaving this group of rooms one en-tered a small courtyard, decorated with antiqui-ties: Sanudo recalls a marble satyr lustfully em-bracing a naked putto »with his head hung inshame, very beautiful and ancient«.65 Sanudo alsodescribes another ancient figure which – henotes – had been found in Gaeta during the recon-struction of the Aragonese castle.66 The discoveryhad actually taken place in 1492, when the anti-quarian and architect Fra Giocondo da Verona in-spected the figure, and was celebrated in an epi-gram by the Sienese humanist and bishop of Gae-ta Francesco Patrizi: »Praesagium imaginis reper-tae Caietae cum effoderentur aedium fun damentaIllustrissimi Duci Calabriae«.67 Alfonso gatheredtogether in Castel Capuano the most precious dis-coveries being made at the time throughout theterritory of the Kingdom: in addition to the imagofrom Gaeta, he also preserved in the castle an an-cient marble calendar excavated in Venosa and amarble relief of Mithras killing a bull found in theso-called Crypta Neapolitana, the ancient tunnelwhich connected Naples and Pozzuoli (figs. 19,20).68 Information relating to another ancientsculpture kept in the castle comes from an inscrip-tion which is recorded as having been carved onthe base of a statue of a girl sleeping in a cradle,further evidence of the importance given withinthe Aragonese court to the sculptural and poeticaltheme of the sleeping nymph.69 As with similarcases in Naples and in the rest of the Italian penin-sula, the courtyard in Castel Capu ano was deco-rated not only with statues, but also with ancientinscriptions, such as the three epi graphs whichwere reported by Fra Giocondo and another onewhich was sketched by Pirro Ligorio (fig. 21).70 It


ture on display: the first two rooms contained twoorgans, one with pipes made of wood and the other of paper, »which played excellently«; thefollowing three rooms had long tables on displaywhich were covered, the first with crystal decora-tion »of all kinds«, the second with »beautifulgilded crystals« and the last with works of porce-

David Sanderson Chambers, The diaries of Marin Sa -nudo: Personal and Public Crises, in Id., Individualsand Institutions in Renaissance Italy, Aldershot 1998,1 – 33; Stefano Andretta, Antonio Menniti Ippolito,Marin Sanudo e l’immagine di Roma, in FrancescaCan tù, Maria Antonieta Visceglia (eds.), L’Italia diCar lo V. Guerra, religione e politica nel primo Cinque-cento, Rome 2003, 171 – 186.

64 Appendix 3.65 Ibid.66 Ibid.67 Leslie F. Smith, A Notice on the Epigrammata of Fran-

cesco Patrizi, Bishop of Gaeta, in Studies in the Re-naissance 15, 1968, 103 – 104; 120; 138 – 139; epigram n. 259. Fra Giocondo’s role as antiquarian and his pos-sible involvement in the discovery are recalled in theepigram n. 248. See Bianca De Divitiis, Fra Giocondonel Regno di Napoli: dallo studio antiquario al proget-to all’antica, in Pierre Gros, Pier Nicola Pagliara (eds.),Giovanni Giocondo umanista, architetto e antiquario,Atti del seminario internazionale di Storia dell’archi-tettura, CISA Palladio (Vicenza, 10 – 12 giugno 2010),Venice (forthcoming).

68 Theodor Mommsen, Corpus Inscriptionum Lati na rum.

19. Fra Giocondo da Verona, Transcription of the ancient calendar from Venosa preserved in Castel

Capuano. Venice, Bibliotheca Nazionale Marciana,Codice Marciano Lat. XIV, 171, f. 110v

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an oratory.71 Two of the bedrooms were hungwith, respectively, velvet tapestries of tawny lionvelvet and of green velvet tapestries; another washung instead with an exotic striped silk fabriccalled »ormesin«, while the last bedroom wasdecorated with silk hangings similar to brocatellecalled »tabì«.72 The oratory was completely cov-ered with black velvet tapestries, and contained an»excellent painting« on wood and four jasperchandeliers.73 The studiolo is described in detail: it was entirely in tarsia with a table standing in the middle of the room covered by a »beautifuldamask carpet« on top of which lay volumes ofthe Bible, Livy and Petrarch bound in silk, a largesilver inkwell and two jasper chandeliers.74 The


is interesting to note that if the anti quities dis-played in Castel Nuovo seem to have been mainlyconnected to Alfonso I’s desire to represent him-self as a successor to the classical emperors and anunrivalled military lead er who had brought peaceto his Mediterranean Kingdom, those in CastelCapuano seem to reflect more the atmosphere of aprivate collection, which had been inspired by alove of antiquity and where the pieces had beencollected for their intrinsic value rather than fortheir political message.

According to Sanudo’s description, from the little courtyard one could enter what seems tohave been one of the princely apartments of thecastle, made up of four bedrooms, a studiolo and

Inscriptiones Bruttiorum, Lucaniae, Campani ae …,Berlin 1883 (hereafter CIL X), 421: »apud illustrissi-mum Ducem Calabriae est haec pars Kalendarii […] re-perta in agro Venusino«. See De Divitiis (as in note 67),CIL X, 1479: »Neapoli apud illustrissimum ducaeCalabriae advectum ex Pausillipo.«. The relief is nowpresented in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale diNapoli (inv. 6764).

69 CIL X, 3004: Fra Giocondo describes the inscriptionas: »in basi in domo ducis Calabriae olim. Sub saxo inquo puella velut in cunis dormiens«. Metellus writes:»In extrema saxi ora sub statua puellae velut in cunis

dormientis«. On the theme of the sleeping nymphs inNaples note 39.

70 CIL X, 1803: »Neapoli in Castro Capuano«; CIL X,2542: »Neapoli in Castro Capuano apud ducem Cala-briae«; CIL X 2142: »Neapoli apud ducem Calavriae«.The inscriptions sketched by Pirro Ligorio is in BNN,XIII.B.7, f. 256: »Nel castello vecchio a Porta Capoa-na, consumato«.

71 Appendix 3.72 Ibid.73 Ibid.74 Ibid.

20. Relief of Mithras killing a bull. Marble, 110 × 113 cm. Naples, Museo Archeologico

Nazionale, inv. 6764

21. Pirro Ligorio, Sketch of an inscribed base in Castel Capuano. Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli,

XIII.B.7, f. 256

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was the Duke’s apartment; according to the 1488account book and to Alfonso’s diary kept byLeostello, it also included a »camera del paramen-to«, where he received ambassadors, and a lavish-ly painted »spezieria«.76 On the same floor therewould also have been a room painted »a lo modofiorentino«, which, with a frescoed canopy, look -ed on to a terrace.77 Adjoining the terrace was abathroom, in which presumably Alfonso took themany baths which are mentioned in his diary.78

The 1488 account mentions two loggie, a largeone with a tower and a smaller one. These were also presumably on the same level of the apart-ment or perhaps higher: a French chronicle fromthe end of the fifteenth century recalls how one ofAlfonso’s fools was lifted up to the top of a towerin the kings apartment and, playing on a woodenplatform, fell down and died.79

According to Sanudo’s description, there werethree stables that separated the Duke’s apartmentfrom another one which was formed of threerooms and again a studiolo.80 The room first en-tered, which was hung with tapestries, led intotwo bedrooms, decorated with frescoes »con fig-ure depente«.81 In the second studiolo, as in thefirst, there were books displayed on a table and a


main ornament of this studiolo was the bronzebust of »re don Ferando vechio«, the old KingFer rante, which may possibly correspond to thebust by Guido Mazzoni, now in the Museo Ca -podimonte in Naples (fig. 22).75 Presumably this

75 Ibid. The Capodimonte bust is generally identified as a portrait of Alfonso II and not of Ferrante, as Sanu-do’s description seems to suggest. See Mario Scalini,Ritratto di Alfonso II come Duca di Calabria, in Emo-zioni in terracotta. Guido Mazzoni. Antonio Begarelli.Sculture del Rinascimento emiliano, Giorgio Bonsanti,Francesca Piccinini (eds.), exh. cat., Modena, ForoBoario, Modena 2009, 139. For an identification of thebust with Ferrante see Francesco Caglioti, Adriano diGiovanni de’ Maestri, detto Adriano Fiorentino. Gio-vanni Gioviano Pontano, in Paola Barocchi (ed.), Ilgiar dino di San Marco. Maestri e compagni del giovaneMichelangelo, Florence 1992, 112 – 115; De Divitiis (asin note 58), 257. See also Ippolita Di Majo, Episodi di»fortuna dei primitivi« a Napoli nel Cinquecento (in-torno al »San Ludovico di Tolosa« di Simone Martini,in Prospettiva 103/104, 2001 (2002), 133 – 150.

76 Leostello (as in note 32), 214 (2 May 1489: »Jam ortosole surrexit et audita sua solita missa tenne audientia ala camera de paramento in Castello Capuano«). De Di-vitiis (as in note 59).

77 For the »camera della terrazza« see De Divitiis (as innote 59).

78 De Divitiis (as in note 59). The 1488 account recordsthe payments for a wooden ceiling and three clay

channels for the bathroom. The bathroom had a vesti-bule and an adjoining retrecto covered with vaults andpainted by Belardino da Napoli. Leostello (as in note32), 166 (18 October 1488: »[…] et poi se ne vennero ala Matalena et lo Re se ne andò in Castello Novo et lo Duca senne venne in Castello Capuano, et factose lo bagno cenavit et quievit«); 179 (7 December 1488:»[…] Et reversus in Castellum Capuanum se fece lobagno et postea cenavit et hora v noctis lectulum peti-it«); 212 (22 April 1489: »[…] et tornò in Capuana et sefece lo bagno et mangiò de subito et quella sera se an-dò a riposare a tre hore de nocte«); 218 (16 May 1489:»[…] et cavalcò a li Bagniuoli a vedere la S. Regina etstecte cum sua maestà fino ad hore xxii et reversus inCastellum Capuanum intrò a lo bagno et postea cenamsumpsit«); 230 – 231 (21 June 1489: »[…] et arrivati inCastello Novo e data licentia a li prefati imbasciatori loprefato I.S. fuit aliquantulum cum regina et tandemhabita licentia regia se ritornò a sua habitatione accom-pagnato dal S. Don Federico; et quela sera se volea fa-re lo bagno et jam balnea preparata erant habito suoconsilio medicorum, che sempre li tenea appresso suaS. et eorum judicio se regebat mirum in modum«).

79 De Divitiis (as in note 59). The episode is described in:Le tres curieuse et chevaleresque hystoire de la con -

22. Guido Mazzoni, Portrait of Ferrante d’Aragona.Bronze c. 1492. Naples, Museo di Capodimonte,

inv. AM10527

467

puano the Duchess of Calabria had, unusually forwomen at the time, created her own studiolowhere, with the help of her personal secretary andtutor Baldo Martorelli, she intended to gather to-gether her books and display paintings which por -trayed the members of her Milanese family.83 Un-fortunately Ippolita died in Castel Capuano on 18 August 1488, just after the works on the castlehad been completed, and by the time Sa nudowrote his account, more than fifteen years later,her studiolo had probably been dismantled.84

Both the apartments described by Sanudo werepresumably located on the first floor of the castle.From the 1488 account book we know that on thesame floor there was the Gran Sala and a smallersala with benches, which could be reached bymeans of a decorated staircase lit by a windowwere also located.85

The account book also informs us that, at streetlevel, there was a »room below the terrace« whichhad been lavishly decorated by eighteen paintersworking under the supervision of the Venetianartist Costanzo de Moisis.86 Below the »cameradel paramento« there was instead a chapel withtwo sacristies with doors decorated with capitals,and two windows built in a soft stone: further


bronze bust, of the humanist Giovanni Pontano,now in Genoa (fig. 23).82 Probably one of the twostudioli mentioned by Sanudo was originally in-tended for Alfonso’s wife, the cultivated IppolitaMaria Sforza. We know that in the old Castel Ca-

queste de Naples par Charles VIII, Pierre Marie Go-non (ed.), Lyon 1842, 81: »Dimance XXIX de mars leroy ouyt messe a l’Anunciade, et disna a son logis, apres disner alla jouer a Ponge Real. Et ce pendant lefol du roy Alphonce nomme messire Jehan monta des-sus une des tours du chasteau de Capouane au logis duroy, et en se jouant print une piece de boys plate, et enreculant arriere, la piece de boys fut plus pesante que ledict fol, parquoy il tomba du hault en bas et se tua,dont le roy fut moult courrounce.«

80 Appendix 3.81 Ibid.82 Ibid. Caglioti (as in note 75), 112 – 115. Cfr. also Piero

Boccardo, Clario Di Fabio, Adriano di Giovanni de’Maestri detto Adriano Fiorentino. Giovanni GiovianoPontano, in Pina Ragionieri (ed.), Vittoria Colonna eMichelangelo, Firenze 2005, 35 – 36.

83 Ippolita’s design for a private studiolo is recorded in aletter sent by Baldo Martorelli to Ippolita’s mother Bianca Maria Visconti on the 29 December 1466: »Suasignoria fa al presente uno bello studio et dice volerestudiare. Et prega vostra illustrissima signore glie vo -glia adiutare adornarlo et mandarli in tavolletti retrattial natural la excellentia del Signore suo padre et vostraet de tutti li soi illustrissimi fratelli et sorella. Et benché

io me dilecte de medaglie et di picture ne giuro per l’amore che porto a l’uno et l’altro Galeazo che non fomai mio ricordo né de studio né de libri né de picture.Et però ne piglio bene maggiore et incredibile piacereet così de fare vostra Signoria et già ha dicto al illus -trissimo Duca suo consorte et a tutti questi gentil -homini et al Conte de Mattalone havere mandate peresse pero prega vostra signoria gline faccai respostacon effecto«. De Marinis (as in note 20), I, 109; EvelynSamuels Welch, Ippolita Maria Sforza, duchessa diCalabria, in David Abulafia (ed.), La discesa di CarloVIII in Italia (1494 – 1495). Premesse e conseguenze,Naples 2005, 129 – 137 (378, n. 11).

84 Ippolita’s death is described in a poem by BernardinoSiculo entitled Tractato della laudanda vita e proba -tissimi costumi de la illustrissima Madonna Ypolitaquon dam Duchessa di Calabria. See Nadia Ciampa-glia, Lingua e testo di un poemetto su Ippolita d’Ara-gona, in Contributi di Filologia dell’Italia Mediana14, 2000, 115 – 164; 15, 2001, 89 – 132; 16, 2002, 141 –208.

85 De Divitiis (as in note 59).86 Ibid.

23. Adriano Fiorentino, Portrait of Giovanni Pontano. Bronze c. 1494. Genova, Museo di

Sant’Agostino, inv. MSA 3683

468

Alfonso duke of Calabria, which, over approxi-mately a period of four years, led to the radical renewal of the eastern part of the ancient city. Inthe years preceding Charles VIII’s invasion ofNaples, Castel Capuano became a fashionableresidence, able to compete with Castel Nuovo’sceremonial role. If Castel Nuovo was impressivefor its air of stateliness and majesty, the fitting im-age of a King who presented himself as an ancientdivus and as a military leader still recognisably ofa chivalresque type, Castel Capuano excited ad-miration for the splendour of its interiors andfurn ishings, which reflected the cultural refine-ment of a Renaissance prince.

Apart from receiving official visits from ambas-sadors and other important guests, duke Alfonsoorganized in Castel Capuano sumptuous recep-tions and the performance of all’antica plays,which on some occasions rivalled the ones held inCastel Nuovo: on 25 February 1492 the Floren-tine ambassador Niccolò Michelozzi wrote to theRepublic that he had higher expectations of thecelebrations for the capture of Granada that


proof that the chapel was on the ground floor, below the Duke’s apartment, comes from Leo -stello, who on several occasions writes that Al-fonso descended from his rooms to listen to Massin his chapel. On the ground floor, below theGran Sala, there was also the cellar stocked full oflarge barrels.87 Once outside the palace there werethe stables, large enough to accommodate twohundred horses, which the Duke proudly showedto his guests.88 There was also a large garden witha fountain, where Alfonso of Calabria used to eatand rest after a long day spent at Castel Nuovo,89

and a smaller one, which could also be used for receptions, like the one organized by the Duke in honour of his wife Ippolita and other noblewomen only a few days before the Duchess fellill.90 Finally there was another garden full of pom -egranate trees, where in 1488, the so-called »casenuove« were built, in other words, the small lux-urious villa known as the Duchesca.91

Castel Capuano was the magnificent conse-quence of the fruitful association between the architect Giuliano da Maiano and his patron,

87 Appendix 3. De Divitiis (as in note 59). See also Leo-stello (as in note 32), 265 (1 October 1489 »[…] Post-quam surrexerat e lectulo passeggiò per la casa et peralchune stanze et andò abasso ad audire messa ad suacappella.«).

88 Appendix 3. De Divitiis (as in note 59). From the 1488account we know that the Cavallarizza had a pergolaon the front and a large window surmounted by withthe image of the Virgin; it had a vaulted vestibule, a door made of piperno stone and its internal structurewas made of wooden columns. For Alfonso and thehorses in Castel Capuano see Leostello (as in note 32),182 (14 December 1488: »[…] Et quella sera andò a lastalla et fece vedere alchuni cavalli soi con le intorze adui signori lombardi ed andò a riposare hore v noc-tis«); 183 (17 December 1488: »[…] Et post discessumeius andò a la stalla et monstro soi cavalli al marchesesopradicto et a l’altri signori lombardi«).

89 Appendix 3. References to the garden are to be foundin Leostello (as in note 32), 173 (6 November 1488:»Hora decima quarta surrexit et expeditis multis andòad missa in Sancto Pietro ad Ara et poi mangiò al suojardino grande in la prima camera nova«); 177 (2 De-cember 1488: »Hora xiiii surrexit et audita missa andòin lo fosso del castello suo a vedere certa acqua et poi alo jardino grande sempre expacciando facciende; etmangiò per una volta a la camera nova del dicto jardinoet cavalcò al Molo […]«); 182 (15 December 1488:»Sur rexit hora xiii et expeditis quibusdam et audita sua

solita missa se ne andò a la stalla ad vedere soi cavalli. Etpostea fece collatione a lo jardino grande et fece porta-re a li Signori Lombardi una bella quantità de cetri depiù ragioni […]«); 218 (25 May 1489: »[…] Et cenò a lojardino grande a la fontana et sumpta cena reversus ali-quantulum fuit in negociis et hora iii quie vit.«); 230 (20June 1489: »[…] Et sua I.S. venne con lo S. Re al suojardino grande che lì lo havea convitato quello jorno etfureno a la cavallaritia et videno cavalli tucto quello dì:et ad xxii hore fureno in tavola a la fontana et mangiorolo S. Re, lo S. Duca, lo S. Don Federico et fu uno con-vito molto familiare et molto ordi nato«).

90 Appendix 3. Leostello (as in note 32), 153 (2 August1488: »Lo I.S. Duca fece un bello convito a lo giardinopicciolo a la I.S. Duchessa sua consorte, a la Duchessade Milano et de Orbino, a la Marchese at a molte altredonne; et fu de carne«).

91 Appendix 3.92 Corrispondenze degli ambasciatori fiorentini. Piero

Nasi, Antonio della Valle e Niccolò Michelozzi, BrunoFigliuolo, Sabrina Marcotti (eds.), Salerno 2004, n. 46,364 – 365, here 364: »La mestà del re et signor duca ettutta questa corte et la terra tucta, poi che scripsi ulti-mamente per la posta di Milano et per staffetta spac -ciata da questi mercatanti, è stata tre dì in festa, con so-lemne processione per tucta la terra, il giorno et la sera,cum luminare et bombarde et feste, per lo acquisto deGranata. Di poi, a ultimo giorno di tre, facte le proces-sioni, da subito se ne andò a Casal del Principe ad cac-

469

more detail in his description of Castel Capuanothan he does with Castel Nuovo, where he writesat some length only about the gardens.95 It is alsointeresting to note that it was Castel Capuano,and not Castel Nuovo, which most impressed theFrench soldiers who arrived in Naples withCharles VIII in 1494. In a letter sent from Naplesat the beginning of March 1495, an anonymouscorrespondent who was part of the entourage ofthe cardinal of Saint Malo described the richnessand beauties of Castel Capuano where he hadstayed for three days before the arrival of theKing, giving us an image of the palace which isvery close, though briefer, to Sanudo’s: after de-scribing the quality of the wine and the vast num-ber of thoroughbred horses which were kept inthe ducal residence, he writes that he entered »an-other large room where I found vases made ofcrystal, porcelain, alabaster and marble in suchhuge quantities they must have cost more than tenthousand ducats«.96

Despite the efforts made by the Aragonesekings to adapt it for a display of magnificence,


would take place at Castel Capuano in the follow-ing days than of those he was about to attend thatevening in Castel Nuovo.92 His expectations werenot disappointed, since apart from the usual balls,the Duke of Calabria had organized on 4 Marchthe performance of a farcical play on the captureof Granada, specially written by the humanist Jacopo Sannazaro, with spectacular all’anticascenery.93 If one bears in mind that these were thevery years in which Sulpicio da Veroli, in theprefatory letter to the editio princeps of Vitruvius,encouraged cardinal Raffaele Riario to supportthe rebirth of the ancient theatre by hosting suchall’antica performances, Castel Capuano takes itsplace at the centre of the most advanced culturaldebates during the last decades of the fifteenthcentury.94

Castel Capuano had become an object of at-traction and admiration, as the centre of the in -tegrated network of royal residences which itformed along with the other two magnificentducal villas of Poggioreale and of the Duchesca. Itmay be significant that Sanudo enters into much

cia, dove anchora è, ma si aspecta qui stasera, per esserdomani alla festa della signora regina in Castel Nuovo,per la medesima ragione. La festa non fia però altro cheballi et collationi regali, et forse qualche farsa di mas -chere. Una simil festa, o forse più bella, con qualcheintramessa, si farà domenicha seguente per signor ducain Castello di Capuana. Di che potrò dare migliore ad-viso a vostre signorie poi che l’harò vista che prima;come farò, se siano cose degne di quelle«.

93 Corrispondenze (as in note 92), n. 48, 368 – 370, here369: »Per resto delle feste de Granata si fece domenicapassata in Castello Capuano, pel duca di Calabria, unafesta simile a quella della domenica inanzi in CastelNuovo: uno ballo solenne dove convenivono tuctequeste baronesse et gentili dame, assai bene ornate. Eldanzare fu intromesso da qualche farsa di maschere, etcantati più versi in laude del re di Castiglia et della casa d’Aragona, et cose simili, con collazioni reali assaibelle, all’uso di qua«. For the ›farse‹ on the capture ofGranada see Jacopo Sannazaro, Opere volgari, 2 vols.,Venice 1741, II, 123. The capture of Granada was cele-brated in Castel Nuovo on 16 February 1492. See Ni-cola Barone, Le cedole di Tesoreria dell’Archivio diStato di Napoli dall’anno 1460 al 1504, in: Archiviostorico per le province napoletane 10, 1885, 15. See Be-nedetto Croce, I teatri di Napoli. Secoli XV – XVIII,Naples 1891, 12 – 13.

94 Carlo Vecce, Gli zibaldoni di Jacopo Sannazaro, Mes-sina 1998, 111 – 113; Vitruvius De Architectura, Gio-

vanni Sulpizio (ed.), Rome 1487 – 1488. See GeorgiaClarke, Vitruvian Paradigms, in Papers of the BritishSchool at Rome 70, 2002, 319 – 346.

95 Sanudo (as in note 54), 238 – 239. In addition to thegardens, Sanudo briefly refers only to Castel Nuovo’slibreria and treasury.

96 »Après disner nous veinsmes au chasteau de Capouan-ne qui est à l’entrée de la ville, belle maison de plai-sance devant plusiurs autres, où j’ai esté trois nuys de-vant que le roy y arrivast. Mondit seigneur le mare -schal me defendit sur mon honneur que on n’y feistaucune violence ès biens qui y estoient, et il me baillasix archiers. A mon entrée, je trouvay en deux cavesdeux cens pipes de vin le meilleur du monde. Eun unechambre je trouvay bien trois ou quatre mille mors dechevaulx tout neufs de toutes sortes penduz et acous -trez le plus honnestement qu’on saurait faire. En aprèsme tiray en une autre grant chambre où je trouvay dela vaisselle de cristal, de pourcelaine, d’alabastre, dejaspe et de marbre à si grant quantité qu’on dit qu’ilzavoient cousté plus de dix mille ducatz. En une autrechambre je trouvay tant de beau ligne de table qu’onsauroit souhaictier«. Jules de La Pilorgerie, Campagneet Bulletins de la Grande Armée d’Italie commandéepar Charles VIII 1494 – 1495, D’après des documentsrares ou inédit, extraits en grande partie de la Biblio-thèque de Nantes, Paris/Nantes 1866, 195 – 196; Jean-Pierre Seguin, La découverte de l’Italie par le soldatsde Charles VIII 1494 – 1495, d’aprés les journaux occa-

470

Nuovo’s importance as a fortress was never over-come. Furthermore, despite its dimensions, Cas-tel Nuovo was a severely crowded building sinceit included prisons, part of the Law Courts andseveral workshops which produced essential


Castel Nuovo could never really shed its defen-sive character and the forbidding appearance of itsramparts because of its location on the sea. Com-pared with Castel Capuano, which became thecentre of a complex network of residences, Castel

sionels du temps, in Gazette des Beaux-Arts 103, 1961,127 – 134. On the impact and effects of Naples on theFrench troops see Atis V. Antonovics, La conquista diNapoli e il Rinascimento francese, in Abulafia (as innote 83), 273 – 284; 428 – 433.

97 For the description of Philippe de Vigneulles see foot-note 21. See also Bianca De Divitiis, Out of the Seggioof Nido: apothecae and markets in 15th century Na-ples, in Rosa Tamborrino, Evelyn S. Welch (eds.),Shopping and Housing: Shops, Merchant’s Houses andthe Market Place in Europe in the Early Modern Age,Proceedings of the IX International Conference onUrban History, European Association for Urban Hi-

story (Lyon, 27 – 30 August 2008) (= Città e storia, 2,2007 [2008]), Rome 2008, 381 – 400.

98 »Bernardino, canzelero del S. Duca de Calabria, separtiti heri matina, che fu 29 agosto: ha lassato la copiaqui de li processi contra li baroni, et menò due bellis -sime mulle al M.co Lorenzo; quale Lorenzo fa unomodello a la M.tà Re de uno [pala]zo, ch’el dice volerfare per habitare Sua M.tà in Napolli, per non volerestare in ca[stello]«. Carlo De Frede, Lorenzo de’ Me-dici, il »processo« dei Petrucci e del Coppola e un progetto di palazzo reale in Napoli per Ferrante d’Aragona, in Archivio storico di Terra di Lavoro 19,2002, 70.

24. Giuliano da Sangallo, Design of the Royal Palace for the King of Naples. Ink on parchment c. 1488. Vatican City,

Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Cod. Barb. Lat. 4424, fol. 39v

471

Tammaro De Marinis, Carlo Dionisotti, Unopuscolo di Pier Andrea da Verrazano per Bea -trice d’Aragona, in Italia Medioevale e Umanisti-ca 10, 1967, 321 – 343, here 330 – 331:

»Questo prefato scanno, che di sopra si nota, eraposto nella audentia publica sopradetta dove epsoS. Re solea fare li apparati triumphali, cioè nellagram sala del suo Castello Nuovo di Napoli, laquale è qua dra nel suo pavimento di larghezza e lunghezza per ciascuna faccia braccia XL ad lamisura di Fi renze. La quale è similmente d’altezzaaltre braccia XL, e insino circa a ¾ di tale altezzaseguitano le parti delle mura sue in su dectoquadro, e di poi nel principio dell’ultimo quartodi sua altezza si ristringne e dividesi ciascuna faccia in due faccie triangulari, che in tutto sonoVIII faccie con spi goli di pietra lavorati, riqua-drati e triangulati, con li suoi architravi e cornicedintorno, i quali si muo vono sopra un corridoio,che gira per le decte octo faccie dintorno a dectasala, e così vengono digradando tanto che chiu -dono nel fine in volta a’ sopradecti compassi, nel-la sommità de’ quali è composta nel mezo unalanterna di pietra d’appartenente grandezza aldecto edificio, che l’ultima pietra, che serra laghirlanda dove questa si posa, chiude e serra efinisce tutte le pietre de’ sopradecti spigoli, archi-travi, cornice e compassi, di tanta mirabile operad’architectura, che non credo simile edificio sitruovi oggi nel mondo. Nella quale è una finestraprincipale, intra l’altre in sul cortile di decto cas -tello proportionate, sportando in fuori sopra didecta corte nella propria forma e in altante faccietriangulate, nasciendo circa di braccia quattro di


goods as well as luxury items, such as pottery andilluminated manuscripts, for the royal family andits entourage.97

Only forty years after Alfonso I of Aragon re-built Castel Nuovo, the Angevin castle no longerfulfilled the Aragonese court’s requirements formagnficent display. It was perhaps for this veryreason that Ferrante attempted to follow the ex-ample of his son Alfonso by trying to obtain, withthe help of Lorenzo de’ Medici, a design for a newpalace which would reflect the most up-to-datearchitectural fashions. On 30 August 1487 theFerrarese ambassador in Florence AldobrandinoGui doni wrote to Ercole d’Este that Ferrante nolong er wanted to »remain in the castle«, wishingto live instead in a more modern residence in thecity.98 Aware of the king’s desire to abandon hiscastle, Lorenzo de’ Medici reciprocated Ferrante’sgift of a pair of mules and a printed account of thetrial against the Barons, by commissioning forhim a model of a palace (»uno modello de unopalazo«).99 So it was that in 1488, while Giulianoda Maiano was renovating Castel Capuano andbuilding the Duchesca and Poggioreale villas,Giuliano da Sangallo arrived in Naples carrying,as a diplomatic gift, a model for the new royalpalace intended for the king of Naples (fig. 24).100

Appendix 1

Vatican Library. Cod. Barber. Lat. 3972: Spec -c<h>ietto di Pier Andrea da Verrazzano circa lave rità della fede alla S(erenissima) R(egina) d’Un -gheria madonna Beatrice d’Aragona l’anno delsuo felice sponsalitio.

99 De Frede (as in note 97), 69 – 70.100 Codex Barberiniano (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana,

Cod. Barb. Lat. 4424, fol. 39v). The same plan can befound on a smaller scale in the same Codex (fol. 8)and in the Taccuino Senese (Biblioteca Comunale diSiena, Cod. S.IV.8, fol. 17v). On the project for theKing of Naples’ palace see Hartmut Biermann, DasPalastmodell Giuliano da Sangallos für Ferdinand I.König von Neapel, in Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstge-schichte 23, 1970, 154 – 95; Vladimir Juren, Le projetde Giuliano da Sangallo pour le palais du roi de Na-ples, in Revue de l’art 25, 1974, 66 – 70; Hartmut Bier-mann, Palast und Villa: Theorie und Praxis in Giulia-

no da Sangallos Codex Barberini und im Taccuino Se-nese, in Jean Guillaume (ed.), Les Traités d’architectu-re de la Renaissance, Paris 1988, 135 – 150; CammyBrothers, Giuliano da Sangallo. Palazzo per il re diNapoli, in Andrea Palladio e la Villa Veneta da Pe-trarca a Carlo Scarpa, Guido Beltramini, HowardBurns (eds.), exh. cat. Vincenza, Museo Palladio inPalazzo Barbaran da Porto, Venice 2005, 232 – 235.Bianca De Divitis, Giuliano da Sangallo’s 1488 So-journ in the Kingdom of Naples: Architecture, An-tiquities and Patrons (forthcoming).

472

mo, forniron di coprire la decta prima faccia conl’altre tre facce intorno, dove si vedea diverse his-torie, maxime di Alexandro Magno, di Alcibiade,di Sansone e d’altri principi famosi.«

Appendix 2

Archivio di Stato di Modena, Cancelleria Ducale,documenti di stati e città, 85, Descrizione, ceri-monie della coronazione del re in Napoli. 1494, 8 maggio.

Giuliana Vitale, Ritualità monarchica, cerimo -nie e pratiche devozionali nella Napoli ara gonese,Salerno 2006, 43:

»La Mag.tà del S.or Re heri ale 18 hore in vigiliaAscensionis espectò lo Rev.mo Sig. Legato in Cas-tel Novo, come fu iuncto subito arivato apresso loS.or Don Giofre, nepote del nostro Signore, suaMag.tà recevetoli in le stantie soe facte fare in unmese e mezo, quelle dove stava la Ma.tà del Sig.rRe Ferdinando, le quale in sì pocho spatio de tem-po è parso maraviglia de viderla così richamentecomposte: li celii de diversi lavori stelanti de oroet azurino e tarmarino et multo bene intese apa -rate dopoi tute le mure de esse tanto tanto ornata-mente che vera cosa regale erano iudicate. Sonosete camare che l’una intra nel’altra, computatedue salete in capo de esse. Queste salete erano for-nite de razi d’oro (…) seta et paramento de lectocum cortinagio ala regale de procado d’oro rizotuto tesudo d’uno pezzo che mai se vidi più richacosa per lo paramento de lecto, dove non intrazoye. Le camare tute coperte le mura intorno develuto, la prima lionnato, la secunda zambeloto deseta travisato molto galante, la tertia veluto verde,la quarta per la (…) regia tuta cortinagio d’oro etargento che pareva batuta a martello come piastre;cose rechissime cum levriera a l’arme duchesca diparamenti da lecto del medesimo lavoro. Lo re-ducto, como a dire studieto, adobato ala morescazentilmente, dentro parecchi pezzi de libri ri -chissimi adobati, con uno richo scachiero. L’altracamera ornata d’una impresa de razze ala fa volapastorale che parano figure per tutavolta perstacharsi da li panni. Questa stantia serve ali S. ba-


sobto da epsa, fondata in su una sola pietra di for-ma d’un piccol vaso, allargandosi poi co’ sopra -decti compassi immodo che ’l dia metro suo in sulpavimento di decta finestra son braccia VI incirca,richiudendosi la volta di dentro ne’ sopradecticompassi per altezza di circa braccia XII. E da leparti di fuori seguono i prefati spigoli e compassiin tal larghezza circa braccia XX d’altezza, dovedigrada in una chorona di pie tra lavorata e ris -trigne poi che la metà, e nell’ordine predecto tut-tavolta digradando in minor circumferentia percirca di braccia VIII d’altezza, dove alsì ristringnepiù in un’altra chorona di si mil pietra lavorata,onde poi sale di sopra con cierti fogliami e altribellissimi lavori scolpiti di pietra circa bracciaXII, e quivi finisce in una superficie lavorata, so-pra la quale siede un tabernacolo, entrovi scolpitadi pietra una vergine bellissima di natural formahumana con una spada dorata in mano, che rap -presenta la iustitia. E tutto dal principio, mezo efine è di pietra intagliata, scolpitovi spiritelli, ani-mali, uccelli e frondi e fiori di diverse maniere,tutti ritratti al naturale. Alla porta della qual sala siperviene da decto cortile per … gradi di pietra,lunghi braccia x in circa e larghi un braccio l’unoquasi, tutti d’un pezzo. Sopra la qual porta si ri-posa dormendo una vergine innuda, lavorata dimarmo, d’età di xiiii anni, di tanta natural bellez-za che, qualunque la vede, tutto admirato passadentro quasi taciendo per non la destare. E nel-l’entrata di decta sala da man dextra è uno catafal-co di grandezza quanto una di decte faccie, sopralo quale si monta per vii gradi, tutto coperto difine tapezerie, nel mezo del quale, accosto allaparete del muro, era posto il prefato scanno, tuttolavorato d’oro fine e di seta, alquanto più alto cheli altri minori scanni da dextra e sinistra, di dietroe di sopra, ’l quale era un ricchissimo cappellectoo palio tutto di brocchato d’oro bellissimo con alcune sue livree lavorate din torno. E nella dectafaccia dalle latora, per due gradi d’altezza, tutto dibraccia xx incirca, eron posti quattro principalipezzi di tappezzerie di velluto alexandrino, rica -matovi su la historia della pasturella di mara -vigliosa bellezza. E così per simile ordine altretapezzerie, la maggior parte lavorate d’oro finissi-

473

dil Re era in una camera sopra la Marina, dove eraassà copia de libri, in carta bona, scritti a penna, etcoverti di seda et d’oro, con li zoli d’argento indo-rati, benissimo aminiati, et in ogni facultà.

Ma lassiamo questo, et di li ornamenti di Casteldi Capuana, dove habitava re Alphonso in vita dilpadre, alcuna cosa scriviamo. Prima una cameraornata di depenture, ne la qual era uno organo,con li fianti di un legno ditto ferulla. Et di questase intra in un’altra più ornata di pitture, con unoor gano di camera, con li canoni di carta, uno ca -non dorato et l’altro paonazo, che sonava per ex-cellentia. Poi un’altra pur depenta, con tavole lon -ge piene di lavor de cristalli de ogni sorte. Etiamun’altra con lavori bellissimi di cristallo lavorati aoro, et penture in gran quantità. Poi un’altra contavole piene di lavori di porzelane, cosa dignissi-ma. Poi se intra in una cortisella, dove era unosatyro di marmoro abrazava uno puto ignudo conlascivia; el qual puto stava con la faza chinata convergogna, assà bello et antico. Item una altra fegu-ra antica, trovata a Gaeta nel cavar di fossi dilcastello. Poi se intra in una camera a pepiano,granda, ornata di veludo di pelo de lion, et cussì elletto con uno fioron d’oro, con l’arma in testa, daun lato et in mezo. Poi in una, ornata di veludoverde a torno, con il letto ut supra. Un’altra diormesin vergado, similiter il letto: una di tabì in-torno una ferza beretina et una negra a la divisa, etuno studio tutto intorno et di sopra lavorato ditarsia; sopra la tavola uno bellissimo tapedo dam-aschin, sopra el qual era 4 libri coperti di seda, conli zoli et cantoni d’arzento, zoè la Bibia, Tito Li -vio et Petrarca, uno caramal grando, tutto d’ar -zento, do candellieri de diaspro, et la ymagine dilre don Ferando vechio, di bronzo. Di qui si va inuno oratorio o ver capelletta, ornata a torno di ve-ludo negro, con una pala pincta per excellentia,con 4 candellieri de diaspro. Poi se trova tre stalle,et se intra in una camera ornata di razi et tape -zerie, poi in un’altra con figure depente, et il lettocoperto di panno d’oro. Demum un’altra similiterfornita. Uno studio ornato, con libri coperti utsupra, et la figura dil Pontano gran secretario dilRe, homo dottissimo, zitata di bronzo. Poi simon ta in alto, et si trova la speziaria dil Duca, con


roni che cortigenescano. Espectando la presentiadel S. Re demorato in queste stantie poco spatio,passorono di sopra la capella et introrono in lasala grande, la quale sta adubata da alto fin a terade tante riche tapezarie che non stimavo tante fusein Napoli. Sunt fra li altri li quatro pezzi dela im-presa istoria dela pecorella che dovite havere vistoo sentito nominare per cosa così bella come se ra-giona fusse mai facta in Fiandrea et apresso questialtri tri panni grandissimi ad oro texuti moltorichamente. Passata la dicta sala […] in capela re-gale tuta ornata getilmente de tapezarie finissime,cosa pertinente a Chiesia. Lì se celebrò el vesperode la festa doze de l’Ascensione«.

Appendix 3

La spedizione di Carlo 8 in Italia, raccontata daMarin Sanudo, e publicata per cura di RinaldoFulin (Archivio Veneto, 3), Venice 1873, 238 – 240:

»El zardin dil Re era in loco alto, con muri gran-di, arbori producono ogni generation de frutti,naranzeri et limoni, et conzati li fruteri a tornocon li naranzeri parevano spaliere; et in capo diuno altro zardin era una habitation di assà bestievolative, et ne l’intrar come armeri pieni de cuniibianchi; item a modo di una cheba di ferro, doveerano oseleti, merli, tordi et altri oselli, tra i qualuno corbo bianco, uno beretino et uno negro, cheparlavano; papagà beretini assà di ponente, in ca-bie, uno solo verde di levante, tra i qual era unohabuto dal Re di Spagna, trovato in una isola nuo-vamente trovata, grande come Italia. Questo pa-pagà era grande come uno beretin di ponente, latesta bianca, el beco bianco, i pie’ bianchi, sotto lagola dal beco fino al petto tutto rosso, et il restoverde. Item uno altro ortesello tutto naranzeri, etlimoni solamente; uno altro, chiamato Paradiso,dove era limoni, zedri, naranze, pomi d’oro, zen-samini et mirti in gran copia, salizato di pietre, etuna bella fontana et una pissina, una tavola, unacredenziera e una cappelletta da dir messa, tuttafatta di … de mirto. Et el Re poteva venir in stizar dini dil castello per alcuni ponti levadori: tra iqual orti era una via si poteva zostar. La libraria

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questo basti quando alle cose era in Castel di Ca-puana, come ho ditto. In Castel nuovo si teniva lezoie dil Re, dove se intrava in una torre ditta laTorre di L’Uovo, dove era tre organi, uno con li fi-anti di tela, l’altro di piombo, l’altro di …, che tut-ti tre sonavano diversamente. In mezo questo lo-co era un repositorio con gran artificio fatto, con430 casselette una sopra l’altra, da cavar et metter,lavorate a oro, fatto per medaie et camei, che neera in gran quantità; et qui su una tavola quadra,copera di veluto negro, mostravano le zoie a li or-ator. Era gran quantità, varie, di sorte diverse, col-lane, colari, etc.«


gran copia …. Et ussiti di questo palazzo, se intrain la stalla, dove erano 200 corsieri; poi la canevacon gran copia di botte grande, et in un altrozardin, dove di zener era pome granate fresche. Incaso di questo, uno altro bello palazzo, et unafontana et tre camere: una ornata di tapezarie, l’al-tra di picture, et la terza pur di varie picture, conle letiere coperte di seta et d’oro. Montati su scalesi trova pozuoli da star al fresco, mirabili; poi sidiscende in altre camere ornate ut supra, et unooratorio dove era el Duca de Calavria, zoè donAlphonso, fatto naturalmente, che stava in zeno-chioni che pareva vivo: et altre camere et sale. Et

Photo credits: 1 photo: Luciano Pedicini; elaboration: author. – 2 photo: Fulvio Lenzo. – 3, 4, 14 –16, 22 So-printendenza BAAPSAE Napoli. – 5 From Stella 1928 (as in note 2). – 6 photo: Fulvio Lenzo. – 7 photo: MarcoFolin. – 8, 9, 13 photo: author. – 10 photo: Pedicini. – 11 From Santoro (as in note 3). – 12 photo: Fernando Lof -fredo. – 17 Luciano Pedicini. – 18 From Rusciano (as in note 58). – 19 Fulvio Lenzo. – 20 Fra Giocondo da Vero-na, Transcription of the ancient calendar from Venosa preserved in Castel Capuano. Venezia, Biblioteca Nazio-nale Marciana, Codice Marciano Lat. XIV, 171, f. 110v. (photo: Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana). – 21 BibliotecaNazionale di Napoli. – 23 Soprintendenza BAP Liguria. – 24 from Guido Beltramini, Howard Burns (eds.),

Andrea Palladio e la Villa Veneta da Petrarca a Carlo Scarpa, exh. cat. Venice 2005.

Castel Nuovo and Castel Capuano in Naples: the Transformation of Two Medieval Castles into...

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