The Royal Procession to the Church of Santa Maria di Piedigrotta

1770 · Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples

historical

The painting depicts the royal procession that, according to a tradition established in 1734 by the Bourbon king, Charles Vii of Naples, wound its way through festive crowds along the Neapolitan seafront from the Palazzo Reale to the sanctuary of Santa Maria di Piedigrotta, an ancient place of worship and widespread popular devotion. Joli had painted the same event earlier, between 1756 and 1760. He depicted Naples and its seafront with the royal procession from two vantage points: from the east, with a view of the hill of Posillippo in the distance, and from the west, with the smoking Mount Vesuvius in the background.

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The Royal Procession to the Church of Santa Maria di Piedigrotta

About the Artist

Antonio Joli

1700 – 1777

Italian painter. He first studied in Modena with il Menia (Raffaello Rinaldi; fl 1713). After a period in Rome in the studios of a member of the Galli-Bibiena family and of Giovanni Paolo Panini he worked as a scene painter in Modena and Perugia. By 1735 he was in Venice, where he came into contact with Canaletto and again worked as a scene painter. He travelled widely in Europe, and from Germany went to London, where he lived from 1744 to 1748. He had a managerial position at the King's Theatre, Haymarket, and decorated the Richmond mansion of its director, John James Heidegger, with view paintings (in situ). In London he also produced topographical paintings. From 1750 to 1754 he worked in Madrid.

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