Velázquez Masterpieces on Display in Naples: A Cultural Exchange Highlight

At the Gallerie d'Italia - Naples, a museum of Intesa Sanpaolo, from April 24, 2024, to July 14, 2024, it is possible to admire the two masterpieces by Diego Velázquez, Immaculate Conception and Saint John the Evangelist on the island of Patmos, coming from the National Gallery of London, accompanied by two other paintings depicting the Immaculate Conception: one by Paolo Finoglio, coming from the Franciscan convent of San Lorenzo Maggiore in Naples, and the other by Battistello Caracciolo preserved in the church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Roccadaspide, in Cilento. The exhibition represents a new chapter of the series The Distinguished Guest, curated and promoted by Intesa Sanpaolo, which since 2015 has been displaying in its Gallerie d'Italia museums and the Turin skyscraper works of significance on temporary loan from prestigious Italian and international museums. With this appointment, The Distinguished Guest reaches its 14th edition. The arrival of the works from the National Gallery of London is part of the exchange and collaboration relationship with the prestigious British museum, which on the occasion of its bicentenary, dedicates from April 18 to July 21, 2024, the exhibition "The Last Caravaggio" to the work The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula on loan from Intesa Sanpaolo. Michele Coppola, General Director of Gallerie d'Italia, states: "Two masterpieces by Velázquez from the National Gallery welcomed in Naples, while our Caravaggio celebrates in London the two hundred years of the prestigious English museum, is an extraordinary circumstance that arises from a long bond of friendship, exchange, and sharing. This initiative highlights the recognition of the Bank's role as a major international cultural actor, confirming the Gallerie d'Italia among the most open and dynamic museums in all of Europe." The paintings are set up in the room dedicated to the first naturalistic season between Rome and Naples, where the Martyrdom of Saint Ursula is usually displayed. The exceptional loan of the two early paintings by Velázquez offers the opportunity for a reconsideration of the master's visits to Naples and, more generally, of the figurative exchanges between Spanish and Neapolitan painting in the first half of the seventeenth century. The presence of Velázquez in Naples falls within the scope of the master's two Italian stays: the first, motivated by study reasons, between the summer of 1629 and the end of 1630; the second, longer and officially linked to his role as superintendent of the artworks of the royal residences, between January 1649 and June 1651. The first Neapolitan passage of the painter is attested by a payment of 154 scudi that Velázquez collected in person at the Banco di San Giacomo, that is, in the same place today the Neapolitan headquarters of the Gallerie d'Italia of Intesa Sanpaolo. The exhibition of these two masterpieces from the master's early Sevillian production allows to retrace the echoes of Caravaggesque naturalism, emphasizing the importance for the artist's formation of the importation to Seville of works made by Caravaggio and his followers, as well as to remember the stays of the master in the capital of the Viceroyalty. The museum in Naples, along with those in Milan, Turin, and Vicenza, is part of the Gallerie d'Italia museum project of Intesa Sanpaolo, led by Michele Coppola, Executive Director Art, Culture & Heritage of the Bank.