itineraries:

| romanesque and medieval | reinaissance| baroque | rococo |

Chapel Pontano

After the interesting period of Catalan art ( 1380-1435 )  Naples took part in the artististic rebirth, even if with a certain delay compared with  Florence, the cradle of the humanism. In 1442 the kingdom passed to the Aragonese dynasty, Alfonso V, faithful to the classical creed, wanted the town to be enriched of civil buildings and surrounded by new walls. The participation of the local artists was limited, while was remarkable the influence exerted by Tuscan artists called by the king and by the nobility and protected by Florentine merchants and bankers. Of this period remain in the old centre the palaces Carafa and Cuomo, important examples of civil architecture.

From 1506  Naples passed under the Spanish domain  and became the centre of viceroy: in spite of the subjection the city was changed and was extended:  was open the famous via Toledo and were erected palaces and churches worthy of a capital. However, the art didn't assume an original aspect and the classicism and the mannerism had a level of influence for the presence of Lombard, Roman and Tuscan artists, who prepared in their shops Neapolitan artists that gave life, in 1610, to those baroque applications which will appear during the seventeenth century, and will give to the city its own face. The decorative arts and the painting were involved in the lesson of  Roman and Tuscan mannerism, but  weren’t able to realize their own vision, while the sculpture, with the two personalities of  Giovanni da Nola and Girolamo Santacroce, was able to break the limits of such influence and expressed an autonomous vision which laid the  bases of the great baroque lesson.

Text of Gennaro Borrelli