Follower of Claude-Joseph Vernet, Italian 1714-1789- View of the city...

Follower of Claude-Joseph Vernet,
Italian 1714-1789-

View of the city of Naples, taken from the Bastion, called 'il Torrione del Carmine';

oil on canvas, 59.6 x 100.8 cm.

Provenance:
Private Collection, UK, since 1983.

Note:
This view derives loosely from Vernet's composition in the Louvre, 'Vue du golfe de Naples', dated 1748 [RF 1949 8] and follows closely the engraving in the 1781-6 publication 'Voyage Pittoresque ou description des Royaumes de Naples et de Sicile' by Jean-Claude-Richard, Abbé de Saint-Non (1727-1791).

The Carmine Castle was one of the fortifications built by the Spaniards under viceroy Pedro Álvarez de Toledo in the mid-16th century as part of the Spanish plans to surround the city with walls and forts. It stood at what was then the south-east corner of the walled city. The fortress had important strategic value in the military history of the city up to and including the defence of the 'Neapolitan Republic of 1799' against the returning royalist forces of King Ferdinand IV. In order to make room for a modern road along the sea and the port of Naples, the fortress was demolished in 1900 as part of the great urban renewal of Naples of that period. Two towers and fragmentary ruins still stand as historic markers.