Powerful expressiveness, merciless naturalism and dramatic chiaroscuro define the art of Baroque Naples. Caravaggio’s brief stays in the port city in the first decade of the seventeenth century ignited a revolution in Neapolitan painting. As successive generations of Spanish Habsburg and Bourbon rulers, formidable clergymen and a thriving local aristocracy and merchant class competed for prestige in Italy’s then-largest city, their lavish patronage stimulated the creativity of both local artists and visiting foreign masters to extraordinary heights of achievement.
