Paolo de Matteis e la Spagna

Abstract

This research analyses, with unpublished documents, the artistic career of Paolo de Matteis, an interesting personality in the Neapolitan painting, active between the 17th and 18th centuries, in order to reconstruct and integrate the knowledge related to his Spanish painting production, until today neglected by previous studies, but in fact it is well developed for his whole career and continued without interruptions. From the review of the sources, even considering new documentary and territorial researches, it has been possible to show the strong relationship between the painter and the viceroys, and to introduce new and important commissions, aiming to show his artistic personality which was part of the cultural context and to increase the number of his works. So, based on these considerations, it begins a season of strong commitments, in which emerges the figure of Francisco de Benavides, IX Count of Santisteban del Puerto and his wife, Francisca Josefa de Aragón. It is to them that we owe not only a new historic scenario about the decoration of the Neapolitan church of San Francesco Saverio – the present church of San Ferdinando – but important works commissioned to the painter to increase their private collection and religious foundations under their patronage, like the church of Virgen del Milagro in Cocentaina. The information included in the texts on Spanish artistic historiography and the verification of many documents have made it possible to define new data regarding other commissions assigned to the painter, related to both the royal court, as the Casa de Campo pictorial series and the paintings de La Granja de San Ildefonso, and for private clients, as 3 the pictorial series for the Marquis de la Alameda of Vitoria and that of María Teresa Vertiz in Huete. ... [edited by Author]