The Arch of Alfonso in Naples and Its Pisanellesque "Design"

Author(s): G. L. Hersey
Source: Master Drawings , Spring, 1969, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Spring, 1969), pp. 16-24+75
Published by: Master Drawings Association

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1553000

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 NOTES

The Arch of Alfonso in scrapbook

Naples of Neapolitan provenance, now in the
Louvre, in which Pisanello and other artists made

and its Pisanellesque"Design"

drawings.3 The Boymans drawing is attributed on
these grounds to the circle of Pisanello, who was, of
course, himself in Naples in I448-50 or so. But there
G. L. Hersey is actually no firm evidence as to the date of the draw-
ing or the purpose for which it was made, nor has

IT HAS LONG been thought that a drawing now in there been an attempt to explain its imagery. It is my

the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam, purpose here to try to throw a little light on these

of fifteenth-century date and inscribed "Bonanu de problems.

Ravena' (P1. i ), was a preliminary design for the There is a passage in Lorenzo Valla's attack on
Arch of Alfonso in the Castel Nuovo, Naples, which Bartolommeo Fazio, written in I446-47, which may

dates from I452-65. Leo Planiscig so described the
drawing when he first published it in I933, and
Planiscig's hypothesis was immediately accepted by
the leading authority on the Arch, Riccardo Filan-
gieri.1 I have encountered no subsequent disagree-
ment with the idea.2
And yet if the Boymans drawing was such a prelim-
inary conception, numerous alterations were made in
be relevant. (The passage, and its possible connec-
tion with the drawing, were kindly pointed out to
me by Michael Baxandall of the Warburg Institute.)
In the essay Valla is describing occasions on which,
in competition with Antonio Panormita and others,
he was asked to compose verse inscriptions for various
monuments in the Kingdom of Naples. On one such
occasion Valla says:

the final monument (Fig. I): the overall proportions
were changed; the lower part of the Boymans design
with its Gothic rib-vault and heraldry was scrapped
and a copy of the Roman arch at Pula, Yugoslavia,
was substituted; the famous triumph frieze was add-
ed; and the upper parapet of shields and bifore was
replaced by the present segmental tympanum. The
whole spirit of the design in fact was changed from
that of a frail pavilion to the solid frontispiece we see
today. Indeed only certain correspondences between
the upper part of the Boymans drawing and the
upper Castel Nuovo arch-correspondences I will
discuss later-plus the two-story format, clearly link
the two.
Aside from Planiscig's assumption as to the pur-
Ioannes Carrapha strenuus Decurio Neapolitanus,
cum in arce, quae dicitur Capuana, imaginem regis
armati, equoque insidentis pingendam curasset, et
circum ear quatuor virtutes Justitiam, Charita-
temque, sive Largitatem, Prudentiam, ac Tempe-
rentiam, sive Fortitudinem (est enim ambigua
pictura) a me contendit, ut versus totidem facerem
singulos in singularem libellis, quos manutenebant,
scribendos: addiditque, ut duos saltem eo biduo,
qui superioribus imaginibus iam prope absolutis
adscriberentur.4
Thus the equestrian portrait of Alfonso would have
been flanked by Virtues, two above and two below.
And we might assume that the scene was large, or at
least high, since Valla implies that scaffolding was
needed.

pose of the Boymans drawing, we know very little Valla then goes on to describe other verses he has
about it. It must be connected with Alfonso I of written, including a set made in competition with
Naples, since his heraldry appears on it. Also, therePanormita for a marble statue of the sleeping, nude
Parthenope, foundress of Naples. In this competition
are stylistic and iconographic links between the draw-
ing and the Codex Vallardi, the fifteenth-century Valla's own distich was chosen over Panormita's since

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 the latter made the sleeping virgin seem to speak, a NOT ES
thing which was held by Alfonso to be "indecens'
Valla then quotes Panormita's verse:

Parthenope, multos bello vexata per annos,

Nunc opera Alphonsi parta iam pace quiesco.
Valla's lines are:

Parthenope virgo diuturno Marte.

Martius Alphonsus dat: requiesce tibi.5

Valla says there is no connection between this marble

statue and the project in the Castel Capuano. None-
theless Alfonso did not throw away Panormita's re-
jected distich with its implication that Parthenope is
speaking. Instead, apparently, he commissioned a
new image to suit the verses, and added this new
image to the Castel Capuano figures. Thus on March
22, 1446, he wrote to his friend and recent fellow-
campaigner, Cardinal Lodovico Trevisan, Chamber-
lain of Eugenius IV, thanking the Cardinal for his
gift of certain works of art. He mentions a "prelimi-
nary image and paintings' and continues:

E por que con el verdadero amigo todas cosas se

deven comunicar vos notifico mi pensamiento e in-
vencion en la colocacion de aquella por sentir vues-
tro parecer que yo fago aquella que represente la
statua de la ciudad de Napols la qual cansada por
mucho tiempo de gerra agora optenida paz se re-
posa/ enbio vos aqui interclusos los versos que le
fechos fazer.

The verses are:

Illa ego Parthenope bello vexata tot annos;

nunc opera Alphonsi parta iam pace quiesco.6

-in other words, Panormita's distich, which had

been rejected as unsuitable for the marble recumbent
statue, has been revamped and applied to this other
image of Parthenope. Cardinal Trevisan's "statue of
the city of Naples' we know, cannot have been the
marble recumbent statue for which Panormita's lines

Fig. 1 Triumphal Arch. Naples, Castel Nuovo.

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NOTES

Fig. 2 Detail from Plate 11.

were originally composed, since the goddess

triumphal arch with herself
the king's equestrian portrait in
modern armor. The horseman
is speaking. But at the same time she is surely resting; would be flanked as in
Valla's
we can perhaps conclude that she isdescription
sitting by four
down.Virtues, two above and
two below. Thisor
Also, Alfonso speaks of "that [picture original conception would have
image]
which represents the statue,' not called
of for Virtues andproper.
a statue a horseman as we see it in the

Thus what Alfonso had received was a design

drawing, for
but without a
the three upper central figures.
proposed statue of Parthenope. InThe changed he
return conception,
is send-Alfonso's new "pensa-
miento e einvencion"
ing his own, alternative, "pensamiento of March, I446, would have
invencion"
includedwith
as to the statue's proper setting, along a seatedafigure of Parthenope in this central
proposed
inscription. place. Indeed the Boymans drawing could actually
It is my opinion that the Boymans drawing is an be the new design Alfonso sent to the Cardinal: in
elevation of a scenographic arch, erected for a specific which case we would have for it the precise date of
festivity or as a semi-permanent scaenae frons, or March, 1446. (Since this outcome of the verse contest
both, in the Castel Capuano. The latter had been between Valla and Panormita was a victory for the
Alfonso's residence while the main royal seat of latter, Valla would not have mentioned it in his essay.
Naples, the Castel Nuovo, was being rebuilt. The This is devoted exclusively to his own victories over
Castel Nuovo's festival hall, or Sala dei Baroni, was his colleagues.)
not completed until the mid-I450's, so presumably A figure of Parthenope would be particularly ap-
theatricals would continue to be presented in the propriate for a Neapolitan festival arch at this time
Castel Capuano until then.7 One notes too the dead- (Fig. 2). Though more famous as one of the sirens
line for completing the verses, and yet that later on, who sang to Ulysses, Parthenope had another iden-
when Valla was writing his essay, he speaks of the tity as a virgin queen, the daughter of Eumelos.8 I
portrait and Virtue as being still visible. In the draw- have said she was the foundress of Naples, and in-
ing we would have a lower arch functioning as a deed in some accounts the city was at first called by
stage entrance, and, above, a classical and allegorical her name. In these stories the name resulted, appar-

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 NOTES
ently, because Parthenope's dead body was washed
ashore at this point (Philargyrius on Vergil, Georgics,
II, 564). But the city of Parthenope gradually de-
clined until, after a plague, the inhabitants refound-
ed it as Neapolis. Parthenope was its patroness and
her tomb was erected at the city's center. Annual
games were held in her honor. Statius, in the Sylvae,
describes the tomb as being tall, and of marble, and
with a special chamber for the Queen's statue, which
is a seated crowned figure. Thus the Boymans arch
may have been intended at least partly as a re-creation Fig. 3 Didrachm from Terina (Sicily).
of Parthenope's tomb, made for contests or celebra-
Reproduced from Rizzo, "Monete greche della
tions in her honor.9 Sicilia'

Parthenope is represented on Campanian Greek

coins in a pose similar to that of the seated figure in
the Boymans drawing. She could appear draped and
seated, wearing a civic crown, with wings, and with
either a staff or a bird in one hand. In other cases the

Queen could appear in the guise of Athena, accom-

panied by a winged naked ephebe (Fig. 3). In the
upper niches of the Boymans drawing we find the
figure flanked not by one but by two such ephebes,
and wearing a civic crown. Besides these coin por-
traits-and Alfonso was famous as a collector of an-

tique coins and medals10-there were a number of

colossal marble statues of Parthenope in Naples in
the fifteenth century, though these have now unfor-
tunately disappeared."
The other main figure in the upper part of the
Boymans drawing is the equestrian image of Alfonso
(Fig. 4). In Panormita's inscription he is made the
agent of Parthenope's rebirth in the phrase "opera
Alphonsi parta' Thus the king appropriately appears
as Parthenope's father, i.e., as Eumelos, the most fa-
mous horseman of antiquity. Some Campanian coins,
indeed, display Eumelos on the reverse, as a charging
horseman, with a head of Parthenope on the obverseFig. 4 Detail from Plate 11 .
(Fig. 5).12 But one can add another, more convincing
classical source for this conception of a Neapolitan
ruler. This has to do with a colossal bronze statue of horse, with an inscription saying that up to then the
a horse that had stood for many centuries in front ofNeapolitan horse had governed itself, but that from
the Cathedral in Naples. It was considered to be the now on the just Neapolitan king, symbolized by the
work of Vergil, it possessed magical powers, and it reins, would rule. While this horse had been wrecked
symbolized the people of the city. According to mostand dismembered by the fifteenth century, the head
versions of the legend, Conrad IV, on entering the and neck were in royal possession, and the story about
city as its new ruler, had had reins made for thisConrad was well known.13

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NOTES
Such an interpretation fits in with the political and
military situation in Naples in March, I446. This
was indeed a period marked by peace after long war,
and by the remarkable achievements of Alfonso as a
papal condottiere. As a result of the Peace of Terra-
cina, negotiated with Alfonso on the Pope's behalf
by Cardinal Trevisan, the King of Naples, in return
for papal recognition of his rule, promised to drive
Fig. 5 Didrachm from Neapolis. Francesco Sforza and his armies from the Papal
Marches.17 During the fall and winter of I446 Al-
Berlin, Staatliche Museen.
fonso had done just this. He thereby for the moment
helped to secure his own kingdom as well as Euge-
nius' temporal power in the Papal States. Alfonso
was in fact now ready
This story provides a special background for to negotiate
nu- a more general
peace with Francesco's
merous representations, thereafter, of the kings allies, the Venetians
of and the
Florentines. Even
Naples as equestrian figures. Charles of the bellicose Pope
Anjou had was happy with
the prospect
such a statue on his tomb, as does Ladislas,of an endhis
to thegreat
fighting, and raised the
Durazzo successor. Such figureshope of a universal
also appear pax italiana.
on At this point, Euge-
the
nius sent
coinage of Alphonso I along with Alfonso de Covarruvias,
inscriptions Apostolic Protho-
that
notary, to Naples
recall Conrad's words, notably the pun on "equus" to persuade the king to send
ambassadors north
and "aequus''14 I would therefore characterize the to Siena, there to treat with the
Boymans horseman as part of this enemy. The Pope, andcomplet-
tradition, more particularly Cardinal
ing our interpretation of the upper Trevisan,
halfwho had
of been
the Alfonso's
designmilitary ally dur-
as a Euhemeristic tribute to the sources of Alfonso's ing the winter campaigns, thus now saw Naples as a
power. source of peace. And this of course is precisely the
There is another point to be made about the Boy- theme of the Boymans imagery, and would explain
mans arch as a whole. One reason art historians have Trevisan's gift to Alfonso of designs for a figure of
been willing to call the drawing a preliminary scheme Parthenope. Covarruvias arrived in Naples at the end
for the Castel Nuovo Arch is that both are so outre, of March, I446, and it may have been in connection
so tall and narrow in format. But this format actually with his visit that the Castel Capuano scaenae frons
recalls a number of earlier royal tombs in Naples, was first put to use.18
tombs that would have added concrete precedents to And yet despite all this evidence for connecting
Statius' verbal image of Parthenope's tall monument. the Boymans arch with the Castel Capuano, I would
More important for the supposed festivities in the not like to suggest that the drawing is totally without
Castel Capuano, the same format was used in clas- relevance to the Castel Nuovo Arch; far from it. If in
sical times for the central feature of the scaenae frons, I446 Alfonso built a temporary arch in his temporary
i.e., as the "palace" door. In Roman theatres, often, residence, the Castel Capuano, six years later he built
there was also an upper niche containing an emperor a permanent one very much like it (Fig. i), in his
statue. The scaenae frons at Orange (Fig. 6), sup- permanent residence, the Castel Nuovo. Both designs
posedly had such a central frontispiece,15 and, more develop motifs from the imagined tomb of Parthe-
hypothetically, so did the uncovered, late Flavian nope and from the Angevin monuments. Between
theatre in Naples which was still standing in the fif- the Boymans arch and that of the Castel Nuovo there
teenth century.16 Thus along with its associations are also the special similarities, frequently noted, be-
with Parthenope and with Alfonso as the provider of tween the upper halves of the two, e.g., the cornice
victory and peace, the Boymans drawing seems to without entablature at the summit of each, and the
represent the centerpiece of a classical theatre. manner in which the ressauts strangely disappear.

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We note also a similar disposition of figure sculpture.
Lateral panels, even, containing figures, like those in
the entrance of the Castel Nuovo, seem to have been
lightly indicated by the Boymans artist. What are
most obviously missing in the Castel Nuovo monu-
ment are the images of Alfonso on horseback and of
Parthenope. But even here I would draw attention to
the fact that almost certainly Alfonso intended to
place a colossal bronze equestrian image of himself in
the upper niche at Castel Nuovo. This statue was to
have been made, in imitation of the Gattamelata, by
Donatello.

We can suppose this because on May 26, 1452,

Alfonso wrote two similar letters, one to Doge Fran-
cesco Foscari and the other to the Venetian ambassa-
dor in Naples. (These letters, so far as I know, have Fig. 6 Orange, Restoration of the scaenae frons.
been ignored by recent Donatello scholars and by Reproduced from Neppi-Modona, "Gli edifici teatrali
students of Neapolitan art, even though they were greci e romani'.'
published in I95I.) The letter to the Doge reads in
part:

Cum audiverimus ingeni solertiam atque subtilita-

tem magistri Donatelli in statuis tam eneis quam
marmoreis fabricandis, magna nobis voluntas re-
cessit eundem penes nos et in nostris serviciis per
aliquod tempus habere.19

Alfonso goes on to mention specifically the "bronze

statue of the Gattamelata made some time since" by
Donatello, and which would not in fact have been
erected yet. The King had no doubt heard of the
statue through Porcellio, who had composed an in-
scription for the Gattemalata tomb.20 I conclude that
a great statue was intended for the upper niche of the
Castel Nuovo Arch, for the latter monument was be-
gun in this same year, 1452, and it was the only im-
portant sculptural program of Alfonso's reign.2'
It used to be thought, as Janson remarks, that the
colossal bronze horse's head now in the Museo Nazio-
nale, Naples (Fig. 7), was by Donatello, and was a
fragment of this proposed statue.22 Thus a passage in
the Codex Nlagliabecchiano tells us: "[Donatello]
fece una testa col collo di uno cavallo di molta gran-
dezza, opera molto degna con il resto del cavallo, in
sul quale e la immagine del re Alfonso di Aragona
Sicilia, Napoli et di altri reami, la quale e in Napoli Fig. 7 Colossal Antique Horse's Head. Bronze.

nel palazzo del conte di Mlatalona de Caraffi"'3 This Naples, IMuseo Nazionale.
passage may not be entirely mistaken, for we have a

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NOTES
letter of I47I, written by Diomede Carafa, Count of
Maddaloni, thanking Lorenzo de' Medici for the gift
of a horse's head (though Diomede does not mention
Donatello), which Diomede has placed in the court-
yard of his palace. The head remained there until the
early nineteenth century when it was transferred to
the Museo Nazionale.24
This story, at least in its present form, conflicts
with the other tale, to the effect that the Nazionale
fragment is part of the antique Vergilian horse that
once stood in front of the Cathedral. There are two
possible explanations. One is that this antique head,
owned by Alfonso (and perhaps restored at his be-
hest), was sent north in 1452 to become a prototype
for Donatello's proposed statue.25 The other hypothe-
sis would be that the head is in fact a copy of the
antique original, made by some assistant of Dona-
tello's. We might note that it is of much the same
type as the Gattamelata's. In any case, work on the
Castel Nuovo Arch was interrupted, and a few years
later, in I458, Alfonso died. Due to civil war his son
Ferrante was not able to enter Naples until I465.
Then, in 1466, Donatello died. So the proposed
equestrian statue was never made and in I47I Lo-
renzo would have returned the head (either original
or copy) to Naples, giving it to Diomede Carafa, who
had been Alfonso's minister and whose palace con-
tained a collection of antiquities.
One possible indication that further practical plans
were made for such a statue is that in I458, before
Alfonso's death, a former assistant of Donatello's,
Antonio Chellino, who had worked with the artist at
Padua and who was a bronze sculptor, arrived in
Naples and joined the Arch workshop.26 Another
such indication is that Diomede Carafa possessed, as
well as this colossal head, a small bozzetto of an eques-
trian portrait, which according to tradition was by
Donatello, and in which the horse's head was an imi-
tation of that of the original Vergilian horse. This is
now lost.27
The proposed statue of Alfonso in the upper niche
at Castel Nuovo remains one of the heroic thoughts
of the Renaissance. In endowing the nicchione with
such an image, furthermore, we make more precise
the relationship between the Boymans drawing and
the Castel Nuovo scheme: the drawing is not a pre-
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liminary design, but rather a design for a preliminary
version, a rehearsal as it were, for the unfinished
marble monument.
1. Leo Planiscig, "Ein Entwurf fur den Triumphbogen
am Castelnuovo zu Neapel' Jahrbuch der Preussi-
schen Kunstsammlungen, LIV, I933, pp. I6-28,
and Riccardo Filangieri, "Un piu antico progetto
dell'arco trionfale di Alfonso d'Aragona,' Rassegna
storica napoletana, I, 1933, no. 2, pp. 75-8o.
2. E.g., in the literature cited below, or in the cata-
logue, Italiaanse Tekeningen in Nederlands Bezit
[Paris, Rotterdam, Haarlem, i962], pp. 24-25, no.
I4. Here is listed most of the earlier bibliography
for the drawing; but cf. also Maria Fossi-Todorow,
I disegni del Pisanello e della sua cerchia, Florence,
I966, no. I65. The drawing is executed in brown
ink, brown wash over black chalk, on a sheet of
paper, 311 x 162 mm. It has been in the Fries,
Lagoy, and Koenigs collections. The inscription at
the bottom, Bonanu de Ravena, which Planiscig
connects with a capomaestro of the Castel Nuovo,
Bonshoms (who is not known to have come from
Ravenna), is in the same hand as inscriptions on
other drawings from the Lagoy collection.
3. Cf. Harald Keller, "Bildhauerzeichnungen Pisanel-
los' in B. Hackelsberger et al., eds., Festschrift Kurt
Bauch, Munich, I957, pp. I39-52; also Fossi-
Todorow, Pisanello, passim.
4. "When Giovanni Carafa, the versatile Neapolitan
councilor, was charged with having painted, in the
Castel Capuano, an image of the king, armed and
on horseback, and surrounded by four Virtues, Jus-
tice, Charity or Abundance, Prudence, and Tem-
perance or Fortitude (it is not clearly painted), he
came to me and asked me to make verses, each to be
written on the little book each one held; and he
added that I must make two of the verses within two
days, for the upper images were just now being fin-
ished'" Lorenzo Valla, Opera omnia, ed. Eugenio
Garin, I, Turin, 1962, "In Bartolommeum Facium
Ligurem, invectivarum seu recriminationum' Lib.
IV, pp. 597-99-
5. "Parthenope, vexed by war for many years, now,
brought forth by Alfonso, I rest in peace" "The vir-
gin Parthenope, long disturbed by Mars. Martial
Alfonso commands: rest thyself'" (Ibid.) Cf. also C.
M. Tallarigo, Giovanni Pontano e i suoi tempi,
Naples, 1874, pp. I 17-I8. I do not know who Gio-
vanni Carafa was, but he was probably the castellan
 of the Castel Capuano, and may have been related
to Alfonso's favorite, Malizia Carafa, and his son the
famous Diomede. I am indebted for guidance here
to Dr. John Moores, who has in hand a monograph
on Diomede. Cf. also Carlo Celano, Notizie del
bello dell'antico e del curioso della citta di Napoli,
ed. G. B. Chiarini, II, Naples, 1856, pp. 684-94.
6. "And since with true friends everything should be
told, I tell you my idea and conception on the set- 12. Cf. Ettore Gabrici, Problemi di numismatica greca
ting-to hear your opinion on what I do-of that
[picture] which represents the city of Naples, which,
troubled for a long time by war, now rests, having
obtained peace. I enclose here the verses I have had
written: I am that Parthenope, vexed by war for
13. Cf. Collenuccio, Compendio, p. 152, also G. Ceci,
many years. Now brought forth by Alfonso, I rest
in peace'' Andres Gimenez Soler, Itinerario del rey
don Alfonso de Aragon y de Napoles, Saragossa,
I908, pp. 224-25. Cf. also B. Croce, "Una lettera
inedita di Alfonso d'Aragona, Napoli nobilissima, 14. Corpus nummorum italicorum, xix, Rome, 1940, pl.
I, i892, pp. 127-28.
7. Cf. B. Croce, "I teatri di Napoli del secolo XV-
XVIII,' Archivio storico per le provincie napoletane,
xiv, 1889, pp. 556-684, and especially pp. 562-80.
For Alfonso as a theatrical innovator see also Andre
Chastel, "Le lieu theatral a la renaissance,' [Collo-
ques internationaux du centre national de la recher-
che scientifique], Paris, 1964, p. 99. The Boymans
conception would thus call for a structure similar to
the later "arco trionfale con un bastimento di legno
15.
con quattro colonne e quattro immagini grandi a
simiglianza delle quattro virtu, sul quale arco era
raffigurato il monte Calvario con tre croci, e sotto
una rupe ove stava il monumento' erected in the 16.
Sala dei Baroni in the Castel Nuovo for a Holy
Thursday festival in I470. The painter in this case
was Giosue Anselmo (N. Barone, "Le cedole di
tesoreria dell'Archivio di Stato di Napoli' etc.,
Archivio storico per le provincie napoletane, Ix,
1884, pp. 228-29).
Capaccio, Historiae neapolitanae [I565], Naples,NOTES
I77I, Book I, pp. 24-35.
10. Pandolfo Collenuccio, Compendio delle historie del
regno di Napoli [before 1564], Bari, I929, p. 292.
11. L. de la Ville-sur-Yllon, "I1 Corpo di Napoli e la
'capa' di Napoli' Napoli nobilissima, nI, I894,
23-26.
della Sicilia e Magna Grecia, Naples, I959, pp.
75-97. These "Parthenopes" are now interpreted
more correctly as Nikes or as nymphs; but the other
reading is the older.
"I1 Palazzo dei Carafa di Maddaloni poi di Colu-
brano' Napoli nobilissima, II, I893, pp. I49-52,
168-70.
iv, figs. 6-7. These coins show Alfonso I on a gal-
loping horse with raised sword, as in the Boymans
drawing, while others from the reign of Ferrante
show an unreigned horse with the motto EQUITAS
REGNI. This latter coin, the cavallo, was of course
worth much less than the coronato with its royal
horseman. Cf. L. Volpicella, "Le imprese della nu-
mismatica aragonese di Napoli' in M. Cagiati, Le
monete del reame delle Due Sicilie. Supplemento
all'opera, Naples, I911-13.
Cf. Aldo Neppi-Modona, Gli edifici teatrali greci e
romani: teatri, odei, anfiteatri, circhi, Florence,
I96I, p. I28.
M. Napoli, Napoli greco-romana, Naples, 1959, pp.
I83-9o. One bay of arches from this scaenae frons,
that on the left, still stands as part of a later struc-
ture just off the vicolo Cinque Santi.
17. Angelo di Costanzo, Istoria del Regno di Napoli
[before 1591], III, Milan, I805, p. 119.

18. Summonte, Historia, iv, p. 75. Unfortunately the

8. G. A. Summonte, Historia della citta e regno di
royal account books containing the main documents
Napoli [c. i600], i, Naples, 1749, pp. 1-26; J.
for court festivals in Naples have always been lack-
Beloch, Campanien, Berlin, 1879, p. 77, Bartolom-
ing for the period December 31, I444, to August
meo Capasso, Napoli greco-romana, Naples, 1905,
31, I446. Cf. Riccardo Filangieri, "Rassegna critica
pp. 92-93.
delle fonti per la storia di Castel Nuovo,' Archivio
storico per le provincie napoletane, LXII, I937, p.
9. That the tomb of Parthenope was tall and of marble,
272.
etc., I deduce from Sylvae 2.2.83ff. and 5.3.Io5ff.
Alfonso's library contained a copy of these poems 19. "When we heard of the skill and subtlety of mind
(Tammaro de Marinis, La Biblioteca napoletana dei of Master Donatello in making statues either of
re d'Aragona, ii, Milan, 1947-52, p. 194). For the bronze or marble, a great desire overcame us to have
legends of Parthenope in the Renaissance, cf. G. him C. in our service for a time.' Jordi Rubio, "Alfons

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NOTES
'el
'el Magnanim'
Magnanim' reirei
de de
Napols,
Napols,
i Daniel
i Daniel
Florentino,
Florentino,
Leonardo
LeonardodadaBisuccio
Bisuccio
i Donatello'
i Donatello'
Miscel.lania
Miscel.lania Notes
Notes on
onaaMaratti
MarattiDrawing
Drawing
Puig
Puigi iCadafalch,
Cadafalch,I, Barcelona,
I, Barcelona,
1947-5
1947-5
I, pp. I,
25-35.
pp. 25-35.
in
in New
New York
York
20.
20. H.
H.W.
W.Janson,
Janson,TheThe
Sculpture
Sculpture
of Donatello,
of Donatello,
II, II,
Princeton,
Princeton,1957,
1957,
P. 157.
P. 157.
Peter Dreyer
21.
21. This
Thishas
hasalready
already
been
been
suggested
suggested
by Juan
by Ainaud
Juan Ainaud
de de
Lasarte,
Lasarte,Alfonso
Alfonso
el Magndnimo
el Magndnimo
y lasyartes
las artes
plasticas
plasticas
de
de su
sutiempo,
tiempo,Palma
Palma
da Mallorca,
da Mallorca,
1955,1955,
p. I I. p. I I.
Without
Withoutknowing
knowingof of
thethe
letters
letters
in the
inBarcelona
the Barcelona IN I967 the Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired
archive,
archive,Wilhelm
WilhelmRolfs
Rolfs
had had
the same
the same
idea (Franz
idea (Franz a drawing attributed to the Roman painter Carlo
Laurana,
Laurana,Berlin,
Berlin,
1907,
1907,
p. I22).
p. I22).
Again,
Again,
Statius
Statius
has has Maratti (Plate z2),1 but not easily connectible with
suggestive
suggestivelineslines
at at
thethebeginning
beginningof hisofpoem
his poem
on a on a Maratti's well-known style as a draughtsman. The
colossal
colossalbronze
bronzeequestrian
equestrianstatue
statue
of Domitian
of Domitian
(Syl- (Syl-
physical types and the smooth treatment of drapery
vae,
vae, I),
I),ininwhich
whichit is
it implied
is implied
that that
the rider
the rider
is con-is con-
in this drawing, executed in red and black chalk and
trolling
trollinga apowerful
powerfulhorse
horse
withwith
a tight
a tight
rein. The
rein. The
themes
themesofofwar
warandand
peace
peace
are are
also also
present.
present.
The The lavishly heightened in white, are close to the art of
statue,
statue,says
saysStatius,
Statius,
is high
is high
up, and
up, the
andemperor's
the emperor's Pietro Pietri, an assistant and follower of the master.
"nova
"novaPalatia"
Palatia"rises
rises
behind
behind
him.him. Nonetheless, the sheet is extremely Marattesque in
composition and in many details. The artist has rep-
22.
22. Janson,
Janson,Donatello,
Donatello,I, p.I,195.
p. 195.
resented a Christian altar surrounded by the four
23.
23. Hans
HansSemper,
Semper,Donatello,
Donatello,
seineseine
Zeit und
ZeitSchule
und Schule
[IX [IX Evangelists, the priest-king Melchizedek who offers
in
in Quellenschriften
Quellenschriften furfur
Kunstgeschichte],
Kunstgeschichte],
Vienna,Vienna, bread, and a flying angel wvho bears a book. The sub-
1875,
1875,pp.
pp.306-o9.
306-o9.
Pietro
Pietro
Summonte,
Summonte,in a letter
in a letter
of of ject has been identified by Blunt and Cooke as an
1524
1524to
toMarcantonio
MarcantonioMichiel,
Michiel,
also ascribes
also ascribes
the the
Allegory of thle Old and New Dispensations (see be-
head
headto
toDonatello
Donatello(Fausto
(Fausto
Nicolini,
Nicolini,
L'ArteL'Arte
napole-napole-
tana del rinascimento e la lettera di P. Summonte a low). Since St. Luke holds his pen in his left hand,
M. A. Michiel, Naples, 1925, p. 166). and St. John writes with his left, the composition may
be considered to be intended for a tapestry or a print
24. A. Filangieri, "La colossale testa di cavallo in bronzo where the design would occur in reverse. There exists,
del Museo Nazionale di Napoli,' Arte e Storia, Oc-
in fact, an engraving of this subject (Fig. I), inscribed
tober I5, 190o, Anno XX, 3rd ser., fasc. 4; Vasari,
Milanesi ed., In, p. 409, says the same. The attribu-
Eques Carolus Maratti Inv. et del. Ioa:Hieronymius
Frezza scul. Romae and dated I 708.2
tion to Donatello was maintained by Croce: "Per la
settima edizione del 'Cicerone' del Burckhardt. Let- Maratti is thus described as both the inventor and
tera aperta al Dr. G. Bode,' Napoli nobilissima, vI, the draughtsman, and since the Metropolitan draw-
I897, p. 53. I would like to thank Dr. Cornelius
ing corresponds very closely both in composition and
Vermeule for his opinion on the subject, which is
size with the engraving, the New York drawing may
that the head is basically antique but was heavily
be considered Maratti's final or one of his final stud-
reworked at a later period.
ies for the engraving. The use of left hand gestures in
25. Cf. also the several drawings of horses' heads in the the drawing seems to establish with certainty that
Codex Vallardi and related collections (Fossi-Todo-
Maratti drew with the engraving in mind. The date
row, Pisanello, nos. 286-290).
1708 on Frezza's print establishes a terminus ante
26. Carel von Fabriczy, "Der Triumphbogen Alphonsos quem for the drawing; it should date from I708 or
I am Castel Nuovo zu Neapel' Jahrbuch der Preus- shortly before.
sischen Kunstsammlungen, xx, 1899, p. 149, Doc. Since only a few drawings datable in Maratti's
ix.
last years are known, the importance of the New York

27. Cf. Celano, Notizie, III, pp. 683-84, and ii, pp. drawing is evident. From the Vita di Carlo Maratti,
31 -14, which however says that the rider is Fer- begun by Bellori but completed after his death, we
rante, not Alfonso. know that Maratti was hardly able to work after

[24]

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 Plate I
FOLLOWER OF
PISANELLO. Design for a
Neapolitan Festival Arch.
Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-
Van Beuningen. ( 6)

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