Naples

City of southern Italy that was the capital of a kingdom covering the southern regions of the peninsula and the island of Sicily. Naples had been a thriving port city from the time of the ancient Greeks, who founded the metropolis and called it Neapolis or “new city.” After the fall of the western Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire made Naples a key port. Trade from southern Europe to Greece and the Middle East brought great wealth to the city and made it a valuable prize for the Normans, who established a kingdom in southern Italy and the island of Sicily in 1039.

During the Renaissance, the kingdom of Naples was contested by the Angevin dynasty, which had its roots in northern France, and the rulers of the Spanish realm of Aragon. The Angevin dynasty was granted Naples by Pope Clement IV in 1266. Angevin kings brought important Italian artists, including Giotto and Simone Martini, to the city to decorate churches, palaces, and buildings belonging to the Franciscans, an order of monks established in the thirteenth century.

In 1373, when Queen Joan I renounced the Angevin claim to Naples, she named Duke Louis I of Anjou as her heir. The rival of Louis, the Prince of Durazzo, took his vengeance by murdering Joan and conquering Naples in 1382, when he was crowned as Charles III, king of Naples. Although Naples was seized by Alfonso V of Aragon in 1442, the Angevin dynasty did not give up its claim to the kingdom.

Alfonso celebrated his victory by raising one of the most famous monuments of Naples, the Arco di Trionfo di Constantio, a monumental arch inspired by the architecture of ancient Rome. Under the Aragonese dynasty Naples became an important center of painting, with a renowned school established in the city by Colantonio del Fiore. Neapolitan kings commissioned works by Pisanello, Donatello, and Michelozzo, all artists of Florence and Tuscany, while noble families of Naples hired these and other northern painters to decorate their private chapels in the city's leading churches. A unique Neapolitan style of painting and sculpture developed in the late fifteenth century; its leading artists were Diego de Siloé and Bartolomé Ordonez, both Spaniards.

In the meantime, the Angevin line died out in 1481, and the French claim to Naples was taken up by the Valois dynasty. The Valois was given support by Pope Innocent VIII, who saw the Aragonese as a serious threat to his own authority in central Italy. When Alfonso's son and heir Ferrante died in 1494, the pope invited King Charles VIII to invade Italy with the goal of seizing Naples and allying it with the Papacy. The French troops defeated the Aragonese but facing a much stronger army sent by Ferdinand II of Aragon, Charles soon retreated from Italy. The Aragonese remained in control of Naples while the kings of France made unsuccessful efforts to wrest it from their control. Finally Spain united Naples and Sicily under its own government in 1501 and sent viceroys to rule the city. By the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis of 1559 France officially ceded Naples to Spain. Under Spanish rule Naples grew to become the second-most populous city in Europe, after Paris, and attracted renowned painters, writers, scholars, and sculptors from throughout Italy.

In the sixteenth century Naples was visited by Raphael, who painted the Madonna del Pesce for a family chapel in San Domenico Maggiore, and Giorgio Vasari, who painted frescoes and paintings for the monastery of Monteoliveto. In the early seventeenth century, the wealthy religious orders were hiring Neapolitan and foreign artists to decorate the chapels, refectories, and halls of their monasteries in and around the city. Noble patrons also commissioned important works from Michelangelo da Caravaggio, who spent several years in Naples and left behind The Seven Acts of Mercy and the Flagellation of Christ. The sculptor Pietro Bernini was also working in Naples at this time as was the philosopher Giordano Bruno.

Under the Spanish viceroys Naples experienced the peak of its prestige and wealth, but it also suffered under oppressive tyranny. In 1647 a violent revolt led by a humble fisherman, Masaniello, broke out in the city. The revolt was put down but after an outbreak of plague killed half the population in 1656, Naples began to decline as an economic and artistic capital.