Neapolitan School of the 17th Century, Battle Scenes between Christians and Turks

Neapolitan school of the 17th century

Battle scenes between Christians and Turks

(2) Oil on canvas, 52 x 71 cm

With frame, 61 x 80 cm

A genre that met with great success in Neapolitan painting in the seventeenth century and flattering success among collectors was that of the battle. The Neapolitan nobility loved to decorate the walls of their halls with battles depicting single acts of heroism or complex combats that exalted patriotism and warlike ability, virtues with which the members of the wealthy aristocracy of the time loved to identify.

The Church, in the Neapolitan area, was also at the forefront of commissions, commissioning artists to depict the spectacular triumphs of Christianity over the infidels, such as the memorable naval battle of Lepanto in 1571, which marked a turning point in history with the great victory over the Turks, becoming a repeated iconographic motif full of devotional value, replicated several times due to the interest of the Dominican order, devoted to the Madonna of the Rosary, who benevolently followed earthly events from the heavens above. Other themes dear to the Church in the genre were taken from the Old and New Testaments, such as the Victory of Constantine at the Milvian Bridge or Saint James at the Battle of Clodius.

Among the main Neapolitan artists of that period, several specialized in battle scenes: among these we remember Francesco Graziani, known as Ciccio Napoletano, a battle painter active between Naples and Rome in the second half of the seventeenth century, Andrea De Lione, who lived in Naples from 1610 to 1685, a versatile narrator of battles without heroes, of knights attacking or retreating, of profane scenes immersed in a wild and primordial nature, yet already classicized, and Carlo Coppola. The latter was active for over twenty years, from 1640 to 1665 and his catalogue, interesting because it bears witness to a particular historical moment and to the tastes of private clients, is still to be defined, even if many of his works are signed. It is precisely Coppola's corpus that these two paintings could come close to: with the production of the Neapolitan battle painter the two paintings seem to share the smoky colors, the accentuated chiaroscuro and the marked dynamism of the scenes. Furthermore, it is necessary to remember how the battle between Christians and Turks was an absolutely central theme for Coppola's pictorial production. Close to the manner of the two paintings analyzed here is also the production of one of Coppola's most famous students, Giovanni Luigi Rocco: the paintings show analogies with two Battle scenes between Christians and Muslims currently part of a private collection in Parma.